Graphite and pastel on paper. Inscribed: "'A Duncan Grant Christmas 1927 Rupert Doone at the New Year." 22 x 13"

This artwork was previously catalogued at auction (and by another auction house) as the work of Duncan Grant (1885 - 1978); however, it is Vallot Auctioneers' opinion, that a broader attribution is warranted at this time, despite that there remains several tantalizing clues that might lead one to a more definitive future attribution to Grant or another aligned Bloomsbury Group artist.

The drawing without question both stylistically and thematically belongs to the milieu of the Bloomsbury Group, and in particular to the small circle surrounding Duncan Grant and in particular its subject matter and manner of execution suggest someone in the Bloomsbury entourage and in particular those that visited Charleston House in the late 1920s.

Charleston was both home and studio of the modernist painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant as well as a place of gathering for the members of the Bloomsbury Group especially at Christmastime. Charleston, in rural Essex, would seem quite an uncomfortable place to entertain during the winter months. Hot water and radiators weren't installed until 1926. Electricity did not arrive until a decade later. “In spite of such conditions,” Richard Shone has written, “visitors swelled the household, bringing welcome news and gossip from London, toys and chocolate for the children” (1).

In the year when the drawing is dated, 1927, Duncan Grant spent Christmas at Charleston and thereafter left for London shortly before his planned trip to Cassis in France where he would join his mother in the first week of January. In the months between October and Christmas 1927, Duncan Grant visited Paris to meet Robert Medley where they made “little water-colour sketches in the Louvre".(2) Medley was joined by Rupert Doone, the famed dancer and choreographer, and it is "Rupert Doone" that is written in the inscription (previously incorrectly identified by another auction house as "Repent Done". According to Frances Spalding, "Doone had hoped that Duncan would collaborate with him on theatrical projects, but though Duncan designed some costumes... and entered into long discussions with Doone for a ballet... nothing further came of this relationship" (3).

On the relationship between Doone and Grant, Richard Shone writes that Medley "was generally better liked than Rupert Doone who could be overbearing and exigent".(4) Grant’s later biographer, Spalding however hints at a romantic link between the two claiming that Doone was one of his "former pick-ups".(5) If the figure in the drawing is in fact Doone himself, to whom can we ascribe authorship? Medley was Doone's life partner, so one could hypothesize that Medley may be the artist of such an intimate nude sketch of Doone.

Alternatively, one could pursue the proposal that Grant was the author in light of the fact that his and Doone’s relationship began before, in 1926, Doone became Medley’s lifelong lover. Doone had posed nude for Grant previously for several drawings and portrait heads in the early 1920s. Grant often found it difficult to find male models comfortable enough to be nude together when painting The Bathers which he began in 1927 and finished in 1934. Medley and Doone's intimate relationship, as Medley recalled in his 1983 memoir, made them suitable sitters (6).

Since Grant had only met Doone in Paris a few months before, it is likely Doone was not present for the Christmas party at Charleston. In a letter from Vanessa Bell dated New Year's Eve 1927, she speaks of the Bloomsbury characters (Angelica Bell, Douglas Davidson, Louie Dunnet, Roger Fry, Peter Morris, Julia Stephen, and Virginia Woolf) who she had entertained in Grant’s absence without mentioning Doone. On the other hand, the possibility that the present work dedicated to the dancer Rupert Doone was perhaps drawn at the Christmas party hosted by Grant in 1927 cannot be completely discounted.

1. Quentin Bell, Angelica Garnett, Henrietta Garnett, Richard Shone, Charleston, Past and present, rev. ed. (London: The Hogarth Press, 1993), p. 21.

2. Robert Medley, Drawn from the Life: A Memoir (London; Boston: Faber and Faber, 1983). p. 77-78.

3. Frances Spalding, Duncan Grant: A Biography (London: Pimlico, 1997), p. 237.

4. Richard Shone, Bloomsbury portraits: Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, and their circle (Oxford: Phaidon, 1976), p. 211-214.

5. Frances Spalding, Duncan Grant: A Biography (London: Pimlico, 1998), p. 267.

6. Medley, p. 99. Every lot is sold "as is," "where is," and "without warranty," whether express or implied. Lighting and electronics have not been tested and should be professionally evaluated prior to use. Art has not been examined outside of the frame unless otherwise stated.

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