By his own account, Grant loved to travel, and second to painting, liked chess and football. In 1924, he and his wife traveled to Scotland and France, and it is likely on this trip that The Brig o’ Balgownie was produced. The bridge runs over the Don River, through the north side of the town of Aberdeen, and Grant captures the surprising range of colors found on an overcast day.

More information about this painting...

Grant had a strong sense of design, blocking many of his compositions with large horizontal and diagonal elements, carefully plotted to energize and balance the painting. He executes his paintings with a technique of laying down patches of color, one right next to the other, that move one’s eye across his dynamic compositions. 

Provenance:

By descent through the artist’s family

With Vose Galleries, Boston, inventory no. JJG-25, December 2004

To collection of Mr. and Mrs. G. Arnold Haynes, Wellesley, Massachusetts, June 2009

Eventually to Haynes Family Foundation, Wellesley, Massachusetts

Labels:

1). Previous Vose Galleries label, inventory no. JJG-25

2). (handwritten label) THE BRIG O’BALGOWNIE / –(torn)°° / J. JEFFREY G—(torn)

Exhibitions:

1). (likely) Exhibition of Paintings by J. Jeffrey Grant, Art Institute of Chicago, August 9 – October 14, 1927, no. 12 The Auld Brig o'Balgownie

2). James Jeffrey Grant (1883-1960) and his North Shore Contemporaries: Cape Ann Painters During the 1930s and 1940s, Vose Galleries, Boston, October 27 – December 7, 2005, illus. p. 12

3). Building Connections: Works from the Haynes Family Foundation, Vose Galleries, Boston, June 2 – July 24, 2018