- Duncan Grant was a strong lover of ballet, was asked to design sets
by Serge
- Diaghilev and was "bedazzled" by Vaslav Nijinsky. However,
these two drawings may also be read as reinscriptions of the "respectability"
of ballet and the queer covers it has offered. The above drawing is entitled
"Pas de Trois, Demonstrating Turnout" (25x17 cm, ball-point &
watercolour) and the one below is "Pas de Cinq" (22x24 cm, also
ball-point & watercolour).
- Are there implications in these drawings for Keynes marrying
- a leading ballerina, Lydia Lopokova, in August, 1925 ? In contemplating
the likelihood of this marriage, Grant wrote: "Maynard's marriage is
a grim fact to face." (Hill and Keynes 1989: 227) After this marriage,
Keynes and Grant remained close as neighbors, Keynes set up a trust for
Duncan Grant when his heart attack cast doubt on his being alive to support
Grant's work and they continued to share important times in each other's
lives. It took some care, but the Bloomsbury group took in Lydia as a member
of their extended family.
- Source for Duncan Grant's drawings:
Private: The Erotic Art of Duncan Grant 1885-1978. Introduction by
Douglas Blair Turnbaugh. 1989. London: The Gaymens Press.
other references:
Hill, Polly and Richard Keynes. 1989. Lydia and Maynard: The Letters
of Lydia Lopokova and John Maynard Keynes. New York: Charles Scribner's
Sons.
Back to my home page