Duncan Grant, 
British 1885-1978 - 
Vanessa Bell (with 'Study for portrait of Vanessa Bell' on the...

Duncan Grant, 
British 1885-1978 - 

Vanessa Bell (with 'Study for portrait of Vanessa Bell' on the reverse), c.1916; 

pencil on paper, inscribed with number on the reverse '24 AO 1522b', 52.5 x 37.5 cm (ARR) 

Provenance: 
with Davis & Langdale Company, Inc., New York, no.DLA-2541 (according to a copy of the original label attached to the frame); 
a private collector of Bloomsbury related art 

Exhibited: 
Davis & Langdale Company, Inc., New York, 'Duncan Grant (1885-1978)', 1st February-15th March 1997, cat. no.8  (according to a copy of the original label attached to the frame)

Note: 
this double-sided drawing is likely a pair of studies for the series of three paintings Grant made of Vanessa Bell in an evening dress made of red paisley fabric around 1916. Two of these paintings are now in public collections; the National Portrait Gallery, London and the artists' home at Charleston. 

Duncan Grant was a central member of the Bloomsbury Group, 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. 

Davis & Langdale Company have historically had a special interest interest in the work of Modern British artists, holding the first solo exhibitions in the USA of Gwen John in 1965, Duncan Grant in 1975 and Vanessa Bell in 1980.