Still life with red and yellow scarf

This is one of two similar paintings from the same period (1955-56), showings objects that were kept in the large glass-fronted cabinet, once owned by William Makepeace Thackeray, which was (and still is) a dominant piece of furniture in Grant's studio at Charleston. Among the objects are Mediterranean and Chinese Export plates, a small pewter jug and two pieces from the Omega Workshops designed by Roger Fry - a white cup and, below it, an olive oil cruet. Several still lifes from the 1950s are informed by Grant's love of Spanish bodegones, of which two anonymous examples, bought in Spain, were in Grant's collection at this time. The second version (private collection), in which the objects are seen more frontally, is reproduced in Richard Shone, Bloomsbury Portraits, revised edition 1993, pl. 183.

R.S.