Vanessa Stephen Bell

George C. Beresford

Vanessa Stephen Bell was painter, muralist, mother and a founding member of the the Bloomsbury Group, a group that interests me to no end. Vanessa played an important role is the life of this avant-garde and unconventional circle of artists, writers, friends and lovers.  I am featuring her today because her fame may be overshadowed by the fame of her sister, Virginia Woolf, however Vanessa is just as deserving to fame and acclaim.  And though there is so much to celebrate about Vanessa,  this post I will focus on her contribution and involvement in Bloomsbury.

Bloomsbury started in 1905 at the London home of Vanessa,  where  riends and colleagues of her brothers would descend upon the household for drinks and to banter about ideas, philosophies and other cerebral challenges. At that time in England, intellectual pursuits were considered to be of a man's world but Vanessa and her sister, Virginia, joined her brothers and their friends and held their own in discussions and debates. These evening meetings turned into a group of writers, poets, intellectuals and artists who critiqued each other's work as well as supported each other's ideas and creative endeavors.

Besides providing the house where Bloomsbury began, Vanessa Stephen Bell, along with her lover Duncan Bell owned Charleston Farmhouse, which is now known as the home of Bloomsbury.

Duncan Grant, 'Vanessa Bell' 

"Charleston, the country home of the Bloomsbury Group, is a unique example of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant’s decorative style within a domestic context and represents the fruition of over sixty years of artistic creativity.

“It will be an odd life, but…it ought to be a good one for painting.”

Vanessa Bell

In 1916 the artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant moved to Sussex with their unconventional household. Inspired by Italian fresco painting and the Post-Impressionists, the artists decorated the walls, doors and furniture at Charleston. The walled garden was redesigned in a style reminiscent of southern Europe, with mosaics, box hedges, gravel pathways and ponds, but with a touch of Bloomsbury humour in the placing of the statuary.

The rooms on show form a complete example of the decorative art of the Bloomsbury artists: murals, painted furniture, ceramics, objects from the Omega Workshops, paintings and textiles. The collection includes work by Renoir, Picasso, Derain, Matthew Smith, Sickert, Tomlin and Delacroix."

from http://www.charleston.org.uk 

A wonderful story about Vanessa and her life.

Vanessa Bell with her daughter Angelica 

Vanessa Bell, 'Duncan Grant in interior' 

One of the aspects of Bloomsbury that intrigues me so is how they decorated and painted their surroundings.  You can see this decor in their paintings, in the pictures of Charleston Farmhouse (see below) and the creation of Roger Fry's Omega workshop.  These artists and writers wanted to live their art and paint and create their lives.  I would love to live this way.  I confess that there are many a moment that I yearn to take pencil and or paint brush to my walls and surroundings.


As I noted above, I am a ferocious student of Bloomsbury and read what I can about these unconventional creatives.  If you are interested I found Priya Parmar's Vanessa and her Sister a highly enlightening and enjoyable read.

And for more about Vanessa and her circle, follow the links below.

Charleston Farmhouse,  The Bloomsbury home of Art & Ideas

The Bloomsbury Group: Art, lives and legacy 

(a terrific resources from the Tate)

Radical Bloomsbury: The Art Of Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell, 1905–1925

(article from studioinmternational.com)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanessa_Bell

‘Vanessa and Her Sister,’ by Priya Parmar 

(NYT, By LIESL SCHILLINGERJAN. 9, 2015)

Charleston Farmhouse

Charleston Farmhouse