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Tennis player

Maker

(artist)
1885-1978

Title

Tennis player

Date of Production

1913

Medium

graphite, bodycolour and oil paint on wove paper, framed in graphite

Dimensions

Height: 25.2 cm
Width: 15.9 cm

Accession Number

D.1958.PD.60

Mode of Acquisition

Pamela Diamand, gift, 1958

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

© Estate of Duncan Grant. All rights reserved, DACS 2023

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords





Label Text

In 1912, Grant and members of the Ballets Russes, the itinerant Russian ballet company, played tennis in Bedford Square Gardens as the guests of the society hostess Lady Ottoline Morrell. By her account, the guests were entranced by the movement of the muscular figures at play. This design may feature the athletic form of Vaslav Nijinsky, the dancer and choreographer, whom Grant knew and admired. Nijinsky also included a tennis scene in his 1913 ballet ‘Jeux’ (‘Games’).

Provenance

Roger Fry (1866-1934); by descent to his daughter Pamela Diamand; Pamela Diamand Gift 1958

Exhibition History

Courtauld Connects Regional Programme - Radical Drawing, Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry, 18/10/2019-19/01/2020

Special Display - Bloomsbury Art & Design, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 18/02/2017-20/09/2017

Radical Bloomsbury - Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, Brighton Museum and Art Gallery & Brighton & England, 16/04/2011-09/10/2011 ...More

Blast to Freeze, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse, France, 24/02/2003-11/05/2003

Blast to Freeze, Kunstmuseum, Wolfsburg, Germany, 14/09/2002-05/01/2003

Vaslav Nijinski, Musee d'Orsay, Paris, 23/10/2000-18/02/2001

The Art of Bloomsbury, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, USA, 20/05/2000-02/09/2000

The Art of Bloomsbury, Huntington Museum and Art Gallery, Los Angeles, San Marino USA, 04/03/2000-30/04/2000

The Art of Bloomsbury, Tate Gallery, London, 30/10/1999-30/01/2000

Roger Fry and the Omega Workshops, The Courtauld Gallery (Prints and Drawings Study Room), 01/08/1990-02/12/1990

El Grup de Bloomsbury, Sala d'Exposicions de la Caixa, Barcelona, 01/09/1986-01/10/1986

The Omega Workshops 1913 to 1919, Crafts Council Gallery, London, 18/01/1984-18/03/1984

Duncan Grant, designer, Brighton Art Gallery and Museum, Brighton, England, 11/03/1980-13/04/1980

Duncan Grant, designer, Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool, England, 01/02/1980-29/02/1980 ...Less

Literature

The Omega Workshops 1913 to 1919, Crafts Council Gallery, London, 1984
cat. no. D43

El Grup de Bloomsbury, Sala d'Exposicions de la Caixa, Barcelona, Spain, 1986
cat. no. 45

The Art of Bloomsbury, Tate Gallery, London, 1999-2000
cat. no. 102
ill. on p. 179 ...More

Vaslav Nijinski, Musee d'Orsay, Paris, 2000-01
cat. no. 180

Blast to Freeze, Kunstmuseum, Wolfsburg, Germany, 2002-03
p. 321
dated 1913

Reed, Christopher, Bloomsbury Rooms, New Haven and London 2004
p. 103
fig. 68 on p. 107

Beyond Bloomsbury - Designs of the Omega Workshops 1913-19, Courtauld Gallery, London, 2009
Appendix, no. 66
ill. on p. 177 ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Collector's mark: none.

Inscription: Verso: upper left, graphite: "5."; lower left, blue ink: "HHF 263" and added after in graphite: "/60".

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