Clive Bell

Arthur Clive Heward Bell(16 September 1881 – 17 September 1964)was an Englishart critic,associated withformalismand theBloomsbury Group.He developed the art theory known assignificant form.

Portrait of Clive Bell byRoger Fry(c.1924)

Biography

Early life and education

Bell was born inEast Shefford,Berkshire, in 1881, the third of four children of William Heward Bell (1849–1927) and Hannah Taylor Cory (1850–1942). He had an elder brother (Cory), an elder sister (Lorna, Mrs Acton), and a younger sister (Dorothy, Mrs Hony). His father was a civil engineer who built his fortune in the family coal mines atMerthyr Tydfilin Wales – "a family which drew its wealth from Welsh mines and expended it on the destruction of wild animals."They lived at Cleeve House,Seend,nearDevizes,Wiltshire, where Squire Bell's many hunting trophies were displayed.

Bell was educated atMarlborough Collegeand atTrinity College, Cambridge,studying history.In 1902 he gained an Earl of Derby scholarship to study in Paris, where his interest in art began.

Marriage and other liaisons

On returning to London early in 1907, he met and marriedVanessa Stephen,the artist sister ofVirginia Woolf.They had two sons,Julian(1908–1937) andQuentin(1910–1996), who both became writers. Julian joined theRepublicanside in theSpanish Civil Waras an ambulance driver and was killed by an enemy shell, aged 29.

ByWorld War Itheir marriage was over. Vanessa had begun a lifelong relationship withDuncan Grant,and Clive had a number of liaisons with other women including Mary Hutchinson, wife ofSt John Hutchinson.However, Clive and Vanessa never officially separated or divorced. Not only did they visit each other regularly, they also sometimes spent holidays together and paid "family" visits to Clive's parents. Clive lived in London but often spent long periods atCharleston Farmhouse,Sussex, where Vanessa lived with Duncan and her three children by Clive and Duncan. He supported her wish to have a child by Duncan and allowed his wife's only daughter, Angelica, to bear his surname.

Vanessa's daughter by Duncan,Angelica Garnett(1918–2012, née Bell), was raised as Clive's daughter until she married. She was informed by her mother, just prior to her marriage and shortly after her brother Julian's death, that Duncan Grant was her biological father.This deception forms the central message of her memoir,Deceived with Kindness(1984).

According to historian Stanley Rosenbaum, "Bell may, indeed, be the least liked member of Bloomsbury.... Bell has been found wanting by biographers and critics of the Group – as a husband, a father, and especially a brother-in-law. It is undeniable that he was a wealthy snob, hedonist, and womaniser, a racist and an anti-Semite (but not a homophobe), who changed from a liberal socialist and pacifist into a reactionary appeaser. Bell's reputation has led to his being underestimated in the history of Bloomsbury...."

Significant form

Main article:significant form

Soon after Bell metRoger Fry,he developed his art theorysignificant form.The two shared a passion for contemporary French art. Bell's bookArt(1914) was the first publication of his theory, which he describes as "lines and colours combined in a particular way, certain forms, and relations of forms, that stir our aesthetic emotions."This form can be seen in art created by many members of the Bloomsbury Group, an example beingInterior at Gordon SquarebyDuncan Grant.

Political views

Bell was at one point an adherent of absolute pacifism, and during theFirst World Warwas aconscientious objector,allowed to perform Work of National Importance by assisting on the farm ofPhilip MorrellMP,at Garsington Manor. In his 1938 pamphletWar Mongers,he opposed any attempt by Britain to use military force, arguing "the worst tyranny is better than the best war."Ideas that Bell eventually supported the war are unproven, as Mark Hussey points out in his 2021 biography of Bell (p. 350 n1).

Works

• Art(1914)
• Pot-boilers(1918)
• Since Cézanne(1922)
• Civilization(1928)
• Proust(1929)
• An Account of French Painting(1931)
• Enjoying Pictures(1934)
• Old Friends(1956)

See also

• List of Bloomsbury Group people

Sources

• Bell, Clive (2015) [1914].Art.CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.ISBN9781514244715.
• Text ofArtGutenberg Project
• Bywater, William G (1975).Clive Bell's Eye.Detroit: Wayne State University Press.ISBN9780814315347.

Further reading

• Hussey, Mark,Clive Bell and the Making of Modernism: A Biography(2021). London: Bloomsbury Publishing.ISBN978-1408894446

External links

• Works by Clive BellatProject Gutenberg
• Works by or about Clive Bellat theInternet Archive
• "CLIVE BELL DEAD; ART CRITIC WAS 83; British Writer Championed Cezanne During 1920's "The New York Times,20 September 1964.