Seated Woman, Ka Cox (recto), c.1912 (oil on panel)

Ka (Katherine) Cox first met Duncan Grant in 1911 and became a close friend of several members of the Bloomsbury Group including the writer Virginia Woolf. She was a member of the so-called 'Neo-Pagans', a group of friends who advocated rustic values and the simple life. Duncan Grant painted her several times. Here he has utilized a piece of old wood, perhaps part of a door, on the back of which he painted a standing male nude. The portrait was one of six works which Grant contributed to the Second Post-Impressionist Exhibition, organised by Roger Fry at the Grafton Galleries in London in 1912. President of Fabian Society Ka Cox was lover of Rupert Brooke.