Vanessa Bell

Vanessa Bell (1879-1961), born Vanessa Stephen, was an English painter and interior designer. Bell was born into an artistic family where children were encouraged to explore creative work. She had two brothers, Toby and Adrian Stephen, as well as a sister Virginia Woolf, and three half siblings. After the death of their parents, Vanessa moves with her two brothers and  sister from Kensington to Bloomsbury, in search of more modern and in trend environment.

The academic circle of Bloomsbury was very influential for the whole family, which helped them to broaden their artistic and intellectual views. Vanessa Bell was one of the founding members of an informal group called  Bloomsbury group, where a number of creative minds exchanged ideas. Bell also hosted the Friday Club, a weekly meeting with a goal to establish free creative space in London, focused on visual art, since 1905.

As a painter, Bell opened up professional opportunities for women in creative field, including her younger sister Virginia Woolf. She studied drawing from 1896 at Arthur Cope’s School of Art in Kensington, and continued perfecting her craft under painter John Singer Sargent, who was a frequent visitor of Il Palmerino, at London’s Royal Academy of Arts from 1901 to 1904.

As an artist, Vanessa Bell had a productive and accomplished career. She had a great sense for visual arts, and quickly developed her style over the years, never afraid to experiment. Bell did not follow Victorian aiming for the narrative painting, which allowed her to develop a strong personal way of expression. Her freedom was obvious both in her work and her private life. Influenced by the Parisian avant-garde when seeing works of Manet, Picasso, Matisse and many others in 1910 English exhibition organized by Roger Fry, Bell started moving towards abstraction in her own work, being one of the first English artists who did so. A year earlier, she exhibited Iceland Poppies at the New English Art Club, which remind us that she has been a strong colorist no matter the formal construction of her work. Even though she moved from academic to abstract forms, the coloring and motives came from similar places in her work. She was inspired by her environment, presenting her garden on paintings over and over again.

In 1907, she married the art critic and former friend of her brother Toby, Clive Bell, with whom she had two sons. During the world wars, they relocate to Charleston, where she found a significant artistic inspiration. Although her and Clive Bell never officially divorce nor parted ways, she established romantic relationships with a few other men in her life. She had a daughter with Duncan Grant, with whom she lived for many years, including other significant roommates that they had. Vanessa Bell also had a relationship with Roger Fry, with whom she established Omega workshop, for textile, pottery and furniture. Apart from the interior design, she applied her artistic abilities for creating all of Virginia Woolf’s book covers, as well as numerous book designs for Hogart Press by Leonard Woolf.

In 1904, Vanessa Bell visited Il Palmerino with her sister Virginia Woolf during their trip to Italy. In her personal diary, she left a testimony saying that it was a strange experience seeing Vernon Lee in front of her portrait done by Singer Sargent, which is currently in Tate museum.

During her career, Vanessa Bell exhibited in London and Paris, being an important part of the artistic discourse of her time. With her strong character, she denied a feminine role that was expected of a woman in her time, which allowed her to be a pioneer on the English 20th century art scene.

Vanessa Bell died in 1961 at Charleston.

Ksenija K.