Haystacks

Duncan Grant studied at Westminster School 1902-5 and at the Atelier La Palette in Paris under J.E. Blanche. He made many visits to France throughout his life and worked regularly in the South of France. He showed with the New English Art Club, with the Camden Town Group in 1911, at the second Post-Impressionist Exhibition in 1912. The influence of the Post-Impressionist exhibitions caused him to develop an innovatory style with rapid brushstrokes establishing a pattern of bright, clear colour. Haystacks was possibly painted near Charleston, the country retreat in Sussex Grant shared with his life-long companion, the artist Vanessa Bell (1879-1961). Very different in style to his painting, The Ass, also in the Feren's collection, Haystacks shows Grant's interest in representing three-dimensional form through pure colour.