Duncan Grant Auction Prices and Value Guide

Duncan Grant auction prices are tracked in Appraisily's artist market index, with source-directory coverage of 1,117 records. Use this page to review sold-lot activity, market context, and valuation factors before requesting a formal appraisal.

Duncan Grant auction prices: quick answer

Duncan Grant auction prices depend on medium, size, date, condition, provenance, edition details, attribution confidence, and recent comparable auction sales.

Artist
Duncan Grant
Source records
1,117
Market update
2026-02-06

Artist context

About Duncan Grant

Duncan James Corrowr Grant (1885–1978) was a Scottish painter, designer, and founding member of the Bloomsbury Group, the influential circle of writers, artists, and intellectuals centred on the Bell and Stephen families in early twentieth-century London. Born at Rothiemurchus in the Scottish Highlands and educated at Westminster School, Grant absorbed Post-Impressionist ideas through his Continental travels and close association with art critic Roger Fry. He became a central figure in the Omega Workshops (1913–1919), Fry's experimental design enterprise, and spent much of his creative life at Charleston Farmhouse in Sussex, now a museum dedicated to Bloomsbury art. Grant worked across an unusually broad range of media — oil painting, watercolour, textile design, pottery, theatre scenery, and costume — and his work is held by major public collections including Tate, the Museum of Modern Art, and the National Portrait Gallery. Collectors encounter his pieces at auction primarily in Modern British and Post-War art sales.

Bloomsbury GroupPost-ImpressionismOil paintingWatercolourTextile designPottery and ceramicsFigurative compositionsPortraitsStill lifeLandscapes

Common works and media

Grant is most frequently encountered at auction as an oil painter of figurative compositions, still lifes, and landscapes. Watercolours and gouaches on paper appear regularly. His decorative output — including painted furniture, ceramics, textile lengths, and rug designs produced for the Omega Workshops and later commissions — surfaces in decorative-arts sales. Theatre and ballet costume designs, preparatory sketches, and mural fragments also appear. Print editions are less common but exist. Collectors should expect a wide range of formats reflecting his cross-disciplinary career.

Market and appraisal context

Duncan Grant sustains an active and well-documented secondary market with 814 auction lots recorded since late 2000, of which 662 carry realised prices. His work trades primarily in Modern British art sales at major houses including Christie's, Bonhams, and Sotheby's, with frequent mid-tier appearances at Roseberys, Dreweatts 1759, Lyon & Turnbull, Gorringes, and Swann Auction Galleries. The price distribution is wide but centred: the interquartile range spans roughly £1,375–£8,000 (median £3,000), with a floor around £100 for minor works on paper and decorative fragments and a ceiling of £260,000 for important oils. Interwar oil still lifes and figurative compositions consistently anchor the upper tier — recent examples include a circa-1922 Still Life at Bonhams (£15,000, June 2025), a late-1930s Still Life with Dahlias at Bonhams (£25,000, November 2024), and a Still Life with Photographs and Flowers at Christie's (£25,400, March 2026). Works on paper, textile designs, and decorative pieces typically trade between £800 and £4,000. Liquidity is moderate: 28 lots appeared in the trailing twelve months (down from 64 the prior year), suggesting market activity remains regular but auction supply fluctuates. A notable outlier is the 2008 Sotheby's sale of Woman at a Window (oil on canvas) for £67,250, indicating that exceptional period oils with strong provenance can significantly exceed the typical range.

Auction categories and appraisal factors

Common auction categories

  • Oil painting
  • Watercolour
  • Works on paper (ink, gouache, pencil)
  • Textile design
  • Pottery and ceramics

Value drivers

  1. Medium: oil paintings generally command higher prices than works on paper or textile designs
  2. Provenance: works with Bloomsbury Group provenance or Charleston Farmhouse association carry premium interest
  3. Subject: figurative and decorative works from his most productive periods (1910s–1940s) are more sought after
  4. Attribution: some works are co-attributed with Vanessa Bell; collaborative pieces may affect valuation
  5. Medium: oil paintings on canvas substantially outperform works on paper, textile designs, and decorative pieces; interwar oils are the strongest segment
  6. Period: works from the 1910s–1940s (his most productive and critically regarded period) command premiums over later output

Appraisal caveats

  • Grant's output was prolific over a long career spanning more than seven decades, resulting in wide variation in quality and market value.
  • Decorative commissions, textile designs, and theatre work appear at auction alongside fine-art paintings and should be evaluated on different criteria.
  • Condition reports are especially important for works on paper and textiles, which are common in Grant's oeuvre.
  • The price distribution reflects 662 priced lots over 25+ years and includes all media; segment-specific ranges (oil versus textile versus paper) can differ dramatically from the overall median.

Evidence

Sources for artist context

This source-grounded artist context passed Appraisily's promotion threshold: high confidence, strong sources.

Source-grounded artist Markdown

Data basis

This page is built from Appraisily's public auction market index. Private transactions, incomplete sale feeds, and attribution changes may not be fully represented.

LLM-readable Markdown summary for Duncan Grant

LLM summary index · LLM full index

Artist value FAQ

How much is Duncan Grant worth?

Comparable public auction sales are the best starting point, but final value depends on the specific artwork, condition, size, medium, provenance, and attribution confidence.

Can Appraisily value my Duncan Grant artwork?

Yes. Appraisily can review photos, dimensions, signatures, condition, provenance, and comparable market data to prepare a current valuation.