Still life with carafe and glasses

This painting, which may have been a gift to Roger Fry from the artist and which appears never to have been exhibited, belongs to the transitional period of 1917-19 in Grant's painting. The impact of Cubism from before the First World War (Grant greatly admired Juan Gris's still lifes) is still apparent (especially in the colour scheme) but the return to a more solid representation of objects is also evident, even if some of the Cubist facetting remains. It is an unusually austere work, an impression heightened by the dark central oval around which the carafe, pot and glasses are arranged and by the glinting presence of the knife in the foreground, with its sharp shadow. The objects appear to be on a painted tray with a green border, typical of the Omega Workshops. The equation of three-dimensional solidity and flat surface is further underlined by the rounded edges of the composition at each corner, as though the whole image was painted on a tray or table top.

R.S.