Duncan Grant’s Last Portrait of Vanessa Bell Found Among Family Papers
Charleston has announced the discovery of a previously unknown drawing of Vanessa Bell by her lifelong friend, artistic collaborator, companion and sometime lover Duncan Grant, believed to be the final portrait he made of her, at the very end of her life.
The work was unknown to scholars until it came to light during preparations for the forthcoming Tate Britain exhibition Vanessa Bell & Duncan Grant: Inside Bloomsbury. The family has donated it to Charleston, where it will enter the permanent collection.
Made in soft pencil and biro on paper, perhaps simply the materials that happened to be close at hand, the intimate work shows Bell lying with her eyes closed, viewed from the side and slightly below, as if the artist were sitting in a chair beside her bed. There is none of the colour, pattern or decorative exuberance with which Bell and Grant are so closely associated. Instead, a handful of lines describe Bell’s face at rest.
The work has remained hidden among family papers for more than sixty years. Its discovery during preparations for the Tate exhibition prompted the family to donate it to Charleston as part of the museum’s ‘50 for 50' campaign, which aims to secure 50 major Bloomsbury works for the collection by 2030.
Grant returned to Bell as a subject throughout their lives together, making numerous paintings, drawings and studies of her. Important portraits are held in national collections including the National Portrait Gallery and some of the most significant examples are in Charleston’s own collection. In 2019, a major full-length portrait of Bell by Grant, dating from 1915, was accepted for the nation through the Acceptance in Lieu scheme and allocated to Charleston. Painted at the beginning of their intimate relationship, that portrait captures Bell at the beginning of a remarkable, shared life. This newly discovered drawing appears to record its end.
Vanessa Bell died at Charleston on 7 April 1961, aged 81, following a short illness. She was buried in the churchyard of St Peter’s, Firle, a short distance from Charleston. Duncan Grant continued to live and work at Charleston until his own death in 1978 and was buried beside her.
One intriguing detail remains: despite being drawn as if at her bedside, the drawing is dated ‘14 April 1961’, two days after she was buried. Darren Clark, Head of Collections and Research at Charleston, believes the discrepancy may be explained by Grant’s practice in later life of retrospectively dating works.
Main Image: Duncan Grant, Portrait of Vanessa Bell, 14 April 1961, pencil and biro on paper, photographed by The Charleston Trust.