[5] Along with Rupert Brooke, Grant attended Hillbrow School, Rugby, 1894–99, where he received lessons from an art teacher and became interested in Japanese prints.

[2] 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.

[5] 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.

[5] 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.

[5] 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.

[7] He likely stayed there until late 1911, recommending the rooms to artist friend, and Slade School of Fine Art Drawing teacher, Derwent Lees, who moved in during January 1912.

[6] Later that year Grant would visit Roger Fry's Manet and the Post-Impressionists exhibition at the Grafton Galleries in Mayfair, which included work by the likes of Gauguin, Matisse and Van Gogh, where he was said to be particularly interested in the paintings of Paul Cézanne.

[6] During the summer of 1911, Grant was invited by Roger Fry to contribute to the redecoration of the dining room at the Borough Polytechnic (now London South Bank University).

As flag ship of the Home Fleet, the Dreadnought was a high-profile target for the pranksters in opposing this new killing machine, and as such the hoax attracted much attention in the press once discovered.

Although Grant had always been actively homosexual, a relationship with Vanessa blossomed, which was both creative and personal, and he eventually moved in with her and her two sons by her husband Clive Bell.

In 1916, in support of his application for recognition as a conscientious objector, Grant joined his new lover, David Garnett, in setting up as fruit farmers in Suffolk.

Between 1932 and 1934 Grant and Bell created the 50-piece Famous Women Dinner Service at Charleston, commissioned by the art historian and museum director Kenneth Clark.

[11] In 1935, Grant was selected along with nearly 30 other prominent British artists of the day to provide works of art for the RMS Queen Mary then being built in Scotland.

His lovers included his cousin, the writer Lytton Strachey, the future politician Arthur Hobhouse and the economist John Maynard Keynes, who at one time considered Grant the love of his life because of his good looks and the originality of his mind.

Duncan Grant's remains are buried beside Vanessa Bell's in the churchyard of St Peter's Church, West Firle, East Sussex.