Call of beauty

With an eye for quality and an ear for good advice, Bernard Kelly built an eclectic collection that encompassed Joshua Reynolds and Duncan Grant via lesser-known, but equally intriguing artists, as seen in an interesting sale

Huon Mallalieu

ACCORDING to artist Anthony-Noël Kelly, his father, the banker and collector Bernard Kelly, whom he painted several times, was ‘a good sitter—stayed very still’. This was something that the subject of one of the paintings in his collection found difficult. Paul Roche was a poet, novelist, translator of Greek and Latin texts, sometime Roman Catholic priest and, for 32 years, a close friend of the Bloomsbury artist Duncan Grant. In an interview shortly before he died, Roche said that, although they clearly loved one another, as a heterosexual he had little or no interest in Grant sexually. However, Grant was certainly passionate about Roche’s body as a subject and asked him to pose the day after they had first met by chance when crossing Piccadilly. A couple of years later,…

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Country Life (Digital) - 1 Issue, February 12, 2025

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