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Vanessa Bell

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the American actress, seeVanessa Bell Calloway.

Vanessa Bell
Portrait of Vanessa Bell(1916)
by Roger Fry
Born
Vanessa Stephen

(1879-05-30)30 May 1879
London,England
Died7 April 1961(1961-04-07)(aged 81)
Charleston Farmhouse,Sussex,England
Alma materKing's College London
Occupation(s)Painter, interior designer
Spouse
​
(m.1907)​
Children
Parents
Relatives

Vanessa Bell(néeStephen;30 May 1879 – 7 April 1961) was an English painter andinterior designer,a member of theBloomsbury Groupand the sister ofVirginia Woolf(née Stephen).

Early life and education

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Vanessa Bell (1902; age 23)
See also:Julia StephenandVirginia Woolf

Vanessa Stephen was the elder daughter of SirLeslie StephenandJulia Prinsep Duckworth.[1]The family included her sisterVirginia,brothersThoby(1880–1906) andAdrian(1883–1948), half-sister Laura (1870–1945) whose mother was Harriett Thackeray and half-brothersGeorgeandGerald Duckworth;they lived at 22Hyde Park Gate,Westminster,London. She was educated at home in languages, mathematics and history, and took drawing lessons fromEbenezer Cookbefore she attendedSir Arthur Cope's art school in 1896. She then studied painting at theRoyal Academyin 1901.[2]

Later in life, she said that during her childhood she had been sexually abused by her half-brothers,GeorgeandGerald Duckworth.[3]

Personal life

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Lady Ottoline Morrell,Maria Nys (laterHuxley),Lytton Strachey,Duncan Grant,Vanessa Bell (1915).

After the deaths of her mother in 1895 and her father in 1904, Vanessa sold 22 Hyde Park Gate and moved toGordon SquareinBloomsburywith her sisterVirginiaand brothers Thoby and Adrian.[4]Thoby began inviting his Cambridge friends to 'at-homes' on Thursday evenings.[5]These social gatherings at Vanessa's home onGordon Squareled to the formation of theBloomsbury Group,which included:Lytton Strachey,Desmond MacCarthy,Maynard Keynes,Leonard Woolf,Roger Fry,andDuncan Grant.[6]

In 1907, Vanessa marriedClive Bell.[7]They had two sons,Julian(who died in 1937 during theSpanish Civil Warat the age of 29)[1]andQuentin.The couple had anopen marriage,both taking lovers throughout their lives. Vanessa Bell had intimate relationships with art criticRoger Fryand with the painterDuncan Grant,[1]with whom she had a daughter,Angelicain 1918, whom Clive Bell raised as his own child.[8]

Firle Parish Churchyard (2017).

Vanessa, Clive, Duncan Grant, and Duncan's loverDavid Garnettmoved to theSussexcountryside shortly before the outbreak of theFirst World War,and settled atCharleston FarmhousenearFirle,East Sussex.John Maynard Keyneswas also a close friend and frequent member of the household, until his marriage toLydia Lopokova,whom Bell disliked.[9]

At Charleston, Bell and Grant painted and worked on commissions for theOmega Workshops,established by Roger Fry. Her first solo exhibition was at the Omega Workshops in 1916.[10]

On 7 April 1961, Vanessa Bell died from a brief illness at Charleston, Firle and was buried in the Firle Parish Churchyard. When Duncan Grant died in 1978, he was buried next to her.[11]

Art

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Jean de Menasce,Vanessa Bell,Duncan Grant,Eric Siepmann(1922).
First edition dust jacket ofVirginia Woolf’s novelMrs Dalloway,1925; cover art by Vanessa Bell.

In 1906, when Bell started to think of herself as an artist, she formed the Friday Club to create a place in London that was more favourable to painting.[12]Vanessa was encouraged by thePost-Impressionistexhibitions organised byRoger Fry,and she copied their bright colours and boldformsin her artworks. In 1914, she turned toAbstraction.[13]

Bell rejected the examples of Victorian narrative painting and rejected a discourse on the ideal and aberrant qualities of femininity. She also designed book jackets for all of her sister Virginia's books that were published by Virginia and Leonard Woolf's publishing company, theHogarth Press.[14]

Bell is one of the most celebrated painters of the Bloomsbury group. She exhibited in London and Paris during her lifetime, and has been praised for innovative works and for her contributions to design.[15]

The Tub (1917). Tate Museum, London.

Bell's paintings includeStudland Beach(1912),[16]The Tub(1918),Interior with Two Women(1932), and portraits of her sister Virginia Woolf (three in 1912),Aldous Huxley(1929–1930) andDavid Garnett(1916). Bell also worked with Duncan Grant to createmurals for Berwick Churchin Sussex (1940–42).[17]

In 1932, Bell and Grant were commissioned to produce a dinner service forKenneth Clark.[18]With oversight from Kenneth's wife Jane Clark, they produced theFamous Women Dinner Service:50 plates painted with portraits of notable women throughout history. The collection eventually passed on to a private collector, and passed out of public view until 2017. The full collection was exhibited in London in early 2018.[19]

Exhibitions

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In the summer of 1909,Iceland Poppies(1908) was exhibited at the New English Art Club. It was praised byWalter Sickertand marks Bell's artistic maturity.[12]

Designs for a Screen: Figures by a Lake(1912), gouache on board, was influenced byNabispaintings byÉdouard VuillardandMaurice Denisand might have been a part of Bell's exhibit Design for Screen, which was shown at the Friday Club Exhibition in February 1912.[20]

In 1916, Bell's first solo exhibition was held in theOmega Workshopin London, a prominent place for exhibitions which supported young artists and introduced design work to the public. Bell had become a co-director of the Omega Workshop in 1913.[21]

Design for Overmantel Mural(1913), oil on paper, depicts herself andMolly MacCarthynaked in Bell's studio at 46 Gordon Square.[citation needed]

Street Corner Conversation(also created in 1913) features four individuals in conversation amidst massive geometrical forms.[citation needed]

Summer Camp(1913), oil on board, illustrates a summer camp organized atBrandonon the Norfolk-Suffolk border nearThetford.[citation needed]

By the Estuary(1915), oil on canvas, is a modestly scaled landscape showing her fondness for clarity of design in which segments of contrasting color harmonize.[citation needed]

Nude with Poppies(1916), oil on canvas, is a preliminary design for a headboard which Bell painted for Mary Hutchinson.[citation needed]

In 1920, she painted a mysterious, narrative painting, “The Party,” which she exhibited in May 1922 at the prestigious London Group Exhibition but was “not for sale.” The painting was prominently illustrated and praised inBritishVogue,June 1922, but then disappeared for 61 years until sold by the Anthony d’Offay Gallery from the estate of Virginia Woolf with the title of “Mrs. Dalloway’s Party.” It is unknown who retitled it, and Woolf’s novel,Mrs Dalloway,was not published until 1925. Bell created the cover art for the first edition dust jacket of that novel.

In 2021, Bell was one of four featured women artists at an exhibition at theLaing Art Gallery,Newcastle.[22][23]

Media portrayal

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Bell was portrayed byJanet McTeerin theDora CarringtonbiopicCarrington(1995) and byMiranda Richardsonin the filmThe Hours(2002).[citation needed]

Bell is the subject of theSusan SellersnovelVanessa and Virginia(2010) and of thePriya ParmarnovelVanessa and Her Sister(2014). She was portrayed byPhoebe FoxandEve Bestin the BBC mini-seriesLife in Squares(2015).[24]

Bell was portrayed byEmerald Fennellin the filmVita and Virginia(2018).[25][user-generated source]

See also

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References

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  1. ^abcJones, Marnie (Winter 1985). "Review: Her Own Story".The American Scholar.54(1): 130.JSTOR41211148.
  2. ^"Archive Journeys: Bloomsbury Art: Vanessa Bell | Tate".tate.org.uk.Retrieved22 March2024.
  3. ^Dunn, Jane. (1990)A Very Close Conspiracy: Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf.London: Jonathan Cape, pp. 20-21.ISBN9780224022347
  4. ^Spalding, Frances (1983).Vanessa Bell.London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson. p. 44.
  5. ^Spalding, Frances (1983).Vanessa Bell.London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson. p. 49.
  6. ^Spalding, Frances (2005).The Bloomsbury Group.London: National Portrait Gallery Publications. p. 11.
  7. ^Spalding, Frances (1983).Vanessa Bell.London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson. p. 61.
  8. ^Archive Journeys: Bloomsbury
  9. ^Mackrell, Judith (17 October 2013).Bloomsbury ballerina: Lydia Lopokova, imperial dancer and Mrs John Maynard Keynes.Orion.ISBN978-1-78022-708-5.OCLC893656800.
  10. ^Shone, Richard.(1999)The Art of Bloomsbury Roger Fry, Vanessa Bell, and Duncan Grant.Princeton:Princeton University Press,pp. 137-138.ISBN0691049939.
  11. ^Spalding, Frances (1997).Duncan Grant.London: Chatto & Windus. p. 506.ISBN0-7011-3409-7.
  12. ^abFrances Spalding."Bell, Vanessa".Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
  13. ^Chilvers, Ian."Bell, Vanessa".The Oxford Companion to Western Art.Ed. Hugh Brigstocke. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
  14. ^Catlin, Roger."A sister's bookish art for her sister, Virginia's, publishing company, the Hogarth Press".Washington Post.
  15. ^Vanessa Bell and Dora Carrington: Bloomsbury Painters. Gillian Elinor.Woman's Art Journal.Vol. 5, No. 1 (Spring-Summer 1984), pp. 28-34. Woman's Art Inc. Stable URL:https:// jstor.org/stable/1357882.
  16. ^Tickner 1999.
  17. ^"Introduction to the Berwick Murals".Berwick Church.Archived fromthe originalon 16 September 2017.Retrieved7 December2016.
  18. ^Leaper, Hana (30 November 2017)."The Famous Women Dinner Service: A Critical Introduction and Catalogue".British Art Studies(7).doi:10.17658/issn.2058-5462/issue-07/hleaper.ISSN2058-5462.Retrieved1 December2017.
  19. ^"Decades Before Judy Chicago's 'The Dinner Party,' Virginia Woolf's Sister Made a Set of Dinner Plates Celebrating 50 Historic Women | artnet News".artnet News.29 March 2018.Retrieved25 November2018.
  20. ^Shone, Richard.The Art of Bloomsbury.Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1999.
  21. ^Spalding, Frances (1983).Vanessa Bell.London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. p. 122.ISBN0-297-78162-6.
  22. ^"Challenging Convention | What's on | Laing Art Gallery".
  23. ^"Challenging Convention at Newcastle's Laing Art Gallery places spotlight on four outstanding woman artists".The Northern Echo.Retrieved2 August2021.
  24. ^"BBC2: Life in Squares: Credits – Episode 1".BBC Online.Retrieved10 August2015.
  25. ^"Vita & Virginia (2018) - IMDb".IMDb.

Bibliography

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