This painting shows Pamela, the nine-year-old daughter of fellow painter, art critic, and the Bloomsbury Group’s principal theorist, Roger Fry, sitting by the pond in the garden of Fry’s house outside Guildford. Pamela recalled the sittings as lasting “for what seemed like days and days,” a trial only partly alleviated by her decision to sew while she sat. Grant’s portrait, subsequently exhibited at the Second Post-Impressionist Exhibition at the Grafton Galleries in London in 1912, speaks of his interest in the medium of mosaic. The short dabs of color contained within heavy outlines contribute to the painting’s flat, decorative feeling: the garden pond has no depth but mimics instead the rug on which Pamela is seated. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016
