Duncan Grant, Joan Eardley and a thank you

Our continuing art travels

As always, we’ve been busy up and down the UK, tracking down works to bring back to Castlegate House, all of which may be viewed HERE in our Latest Work section of the website, and of course at Castlegate House, we’re always happy to see folks walk through the big red Georgian door!

In particular, we'd like to highlight two works which have only just made their Castlegate appearance (within the last 24 hours).

Cassis by Duncan Grant

Firstly, a quite exemplary painting of Cassis from 1930 by the late Duncan Grant. Painted from the garden of the house he and many members of the Bloomsbury Group often rented through the 1920s and 1930s, it’s a wonderfully vibrant explosion of colour; you can feel the warmth of the day shining through Grant’s palette. With exceptional provenance back to 1956, we’ve acquired it from a fabulous UK collection.

Child Drinking by Joan Eardley

Secondly, the most wonderful tender pastel drawing from the late Joan Eardley. Child Drinking dates to around 1960 and as with the Grant, has wonderful provenance, with us acquiring it from a private collection where it’s resided for well over fifty years. Deceptively simple, there’s not a line out of place. It shows a young child, hands cupped around a bowl and sipping from it; it wonderfully fades out to just background colour whilst colourful accents of pink, red and orange (ginger) lift the entire piece. Joan Eardley was one of the most accomplished figurative artists of her generation, and like our personal favourite, Sheila Fell, died far too young in her 40s.

The Old Pram by Joan Eardley

Also very recently acquired from a private collection is another wonderful pastel by Joan Eardley. The Old Pram dates to between 1955 and 1960 and depicts two lads, undoubtedly from the Townhead area of Glasgow where Joan lived and had her studio, larking about, with one sat in what one can only hope was a disused pram; fabulous. 

Our thanks

Now our thanks. When we began our Castlegate journey, almost fourteen years ago, we were in the midst of the “Euro Crisis” (remember Grexit (before Brexit)?); since then we’ve had the after-shocks of the 2016 Brexit vote, the subsequent Brexit political shenanigans of the Theresa May era, a global pandemic, a war in Europe, a cost of living crisis, the self inflicted wounds of the Liz Truss era, Trump administration trade wars and now a war in the Middle East.  There have been may reasons over these fourteen years for people to think twice about buying art for their homes, and yet maybe the nature of these years makes living with things you love and which give you joy all the more important.

We’d like to offer a sincere and deeply felt thank you to all those who have and those who continue to support us and in many cases support the artists we show, especially those in the early stages of their careers; it has and continues to mean everything.

Steve and Christine