The bathers
(c. 1926-1933)
- Medium
- oil on paper on plywood
- Measurements
- 138.4 × 152.8 cm
- Inscription
- inscribed in black paint l.l.: D Grant.
- Accession Number
- 1824-4
- Department
- International Painting
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1948
© Estate of Duncan Grant/DACS, London. Licensed by Copyright Agency, Australia
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited - Gallery location
- Not on display
- About this work
-
In early 1928, Duncan Grant wrote to a friend: ‘I am going to London tomorrow where I must finish a picture which some say is indecent.’ The picture was The bathers, a document of past friendships and liaisons. Although the majority of Grant’s lovers were men, his most enduring relationship was with Bloomsbury Group artist Vanessa Bell (who was in an open marriage with the art critic Clive Bell). Throughout Grant and Bell’s relationship, which resulted in a daughter and ended only with Bell’s death in 1961, Grant continued to have affairs with men. He described himself causing ‘havoc’ because he fell in and out of love so readily, but he and Bell shared a love of art that transcended Grant’s romantic indecisiveness.
- Subjects (general)
- Human Figures Relationships and Interactions
- Subjects (specific)
- bathers embracing eroticism LGBTQ+ male homosexuality men (male humans) nudity wrestling
