Duncan Grant, British 1885-1978 - Bridge over Canal, Venice, 1955; gouache on paper, signed with initials and dated lower left 'DG 1955', 24.5 x 33.5 cm (ARR) Provenance: Anthony D'Offay Gallery, London; Dr. Krikler, purchased from the above in...

Duncan Grant, British 1885-1978 - Bridge over Canal, Venice, 1955; gouache on paper, signed with initials and dated lower left 'DG 1955', 24.5 x 33.5 cm (ARR) Provenance: Anthony D'Offay Gallery, London; Dr. Krikler, purchased from the above in 1976 (according to the label on the reverse of the frame); Bonhams, Edinburgh, 22 February 2017, lot 232; private collection; Mallams, Oxford, 25 June 2020, lot 332; private collection, London, purchased from the above Note: This is one of the artist’s celebrated depictions of Venice, a city to which he made multiple visits throughout the first half of the twentieth century, including when representing Britain at the Biennales of 1926 and 1932. The present piece recalls a number of Grant’s works, with its composition particularly reminiscent of a 1948 painting which is currently in the Government Art Collection. Grant studied at the Westminster School of Art, and is particularly well-known as a central member of the Bloomsbury Group. He was therefore closely associated with seminal figures in early 20th century British culture such as Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell, E.M. Forster and Lytton Strachey, alongside the art critic Roger Fry, the latter having a particularly strong impact on Grant’s artistic approach. Grant’s works can be found in a wide number of collections throughout the country, including the Tate Britain and the V&A in London, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh.