User:Howtobeboth/sandbox

Grant was born on 21 January 1885 to Major Bartle Grant and Ethel McNeil in Rothiemurchus, Aviemore, Scotland. Between 1887-94 the family lived in India and Burma, returning to England every two years. During this period Grant was educated by his governess, Alice Bates. Along with Rupert Brooke, Grant attended Hillbrow School, Rugby (between 1894-99). During this period, Grant would spend his school holidays at Hogarth House, Chiswick with his grandmother, Lady Grant. He attended St Paul's School, London (as a boarder for two terms) between 1899-91 where he was awarded several art prizes.

Between 1899/1900-1906, Grant lived with his aunt and uncle, Sir Richard and Lady Strachey and their children. Lady Strachey to able to persuade Grant's parents that he should be allowed to pursue an education in art. In 1902 Grant was enrolled by his aunt at Westminster School of Art; he attended for the next three years. While at Westminster, Grant was encouraged in his studies by Simon Bussy, a French painter and lifelong friend of Matisse, who went on to marry Dorothy Strachey.

In the winter of 1904-5 Grant visited Italy where, commissioned by Harry Strachey, he made copies of part of the Masaccio frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel, in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence. Grant also made a study of the Portrait of Federigo da Montefeltro, one half of the diptych by Piero della Francesca in the Uffizi and was greatly impressed by the frescoes of Piero in the Basilica of San Francesco, Arezzo. On his return, at the advice of Simon Bussy, Grant made a copy of the Angel musicians in Piero's Nativity in the National Gallery, London.

Grant was introduced to Vanessa Bell (then Vanessa Stephen) by Pippa Strachey at the Friday Club in the autumn of 1905. From 1906, thanks to a gift of £100 from an aunt, Grant spent a year in Paris studying at the Académie de La Palette, Jacques-Émile Blanche's school. During this period he visited the Musée du Luxembourg and saw, among other paintings, the Caillebotte Bequest of French Impressionists.

In January 1907, and again in the summer of 1908, Grant spent a term at the Slade School of Art. Grant took a holiday in Orkney with John Maynard Keynes, who he had met the previous year, and painted his portrait. A year later, the pair would share rooms on Belgrave Road.

In 1909 Grant visited Michael and Gertrude Stein in Paris and saw their collection that included paintings by, among others, Picasso and Matisse. In the summer, with an introduction from Simon Bussy, Grant visited Matisse himself, then living at Clamart, Paris.