Duncan Grant, Interior at Gordon Square, 1914-1915

A GIFT

In February 1914 Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant visited Pablo Picasso’s Paris studio. After seeing some of the artist’s cut-and-pasted paper compositions, many of which incorporated bits of decorative wallpaper, Grant returned with a roll of wallpaper he had found in his hotel room. This “excited [Picasso] very much as he makes use of them frequently and finds [them] very difficult to get. He sometimes tears small pieces off the wall,” Grant later recalled.