Still Life with Photographs and Flowers

Painted in 1947 at Charleston Farmhouse, the Sussex home shared by Duncan Grant with Vanessa Bell, Clive Bell and their children, this still life centres on four carefully chosen elements: a photograph of Julia Stephen (née Jackson) – mother of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell – taken by Julia Margaret Cameron, one of the most celebrated portrait photographers of the nineteenth century and great aunt of Virginia and Vanessa; a framed portrait of an unknown woman; an early twentieth-century Spanish vase; and a gathering of flowers – arum maculatum, montbretia and asters – picked from the garden at Charleston.

The composition brings together colour and memory in a balanced and thoughtful arrangement. The freshly cut flowers introduce a lively note of colour and immediacy, while the photograph and portrait lend the scene a quieter, more reflective presence. By including the image of Julia Stephen, Grant subtly evokes the lineage and emotional history of the household at Charleston. The work can be seen as a gentle tribute to the family circle that shaped much of his life, revealing the deep affection and sense of belonging he found within Vanessa Bell’s world. In this way, the painting becomes more than a simple still life: it is both a celebration and nostalgic illustration of everyday beauty, and a reflection of Grant’s close personal ties to the Bloomsbury surroundings in which he lived and worked.