Vanessa Bell
- Date of birth
- 30 May 1879
- Place of birth
- London
- Date of death
- 7 April 1961
- Place of death
- Firle, East Sussex, England
- Nationality
- Britain
- Biography
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BIOGRAPHY
Vanessa Bell (nee Stephens) was born into a family of artists and intellectuals in late nineteenth century London. Her great-aunt was renowned photographer Julia Margaret Cameron and her mother, Julia Prinsep was a favourite model of the members of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood. Following the death of her parents Vanessa, her sister Virginia (later Woolf) and brothers Thoby and Adrian moved to Gordon Square in Bloomsbury. There they formed a circle of artists, writers and intellectuals who held meetings each Thursday.
Today Bell is the most highly regarded member of this important Modern British art cohort known as the Bloomsbury Group. Other members include Bell's husband art critic Clive Bell, her sister and celebrated writer Virginia Woolf, and artists Duncan Grant and Roger Fry amongst others. During the First World War, Bell and Duncan Grant relocated to Charleston Farm in Sussex where she spent the rest of her life. She and Grant turned the humble farmhouse into an eclectic artistic interior and today the house is open to the public as a museum.
Bell, Roger Fry and Duncan Grant also founded the Omega Workshops in order to break down the barriers between art and design and bring high-quality artist-made furnishings into British homes.
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Vanessa Bell 30 May 1879 – 7 April 1961oil on canvasAccession no: 849P29On display, Gallery 13
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Omega Workshops, Bloomsbury, London 1913 – 1920 , Roger Fry (designer of fabric) 1866 – 1934 , Vanessa Bell (designer of garment) 30 May 1879 – 7 April 1961 et al.
Dressing gown in Amenophis VI design
1918; fabric designed 1913printed linenAccession no: 849A99 -
Vanessa Bell 30 May 1879 – 7 April 1961lithograph on paperAccession no: 413G19
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Vanessa Bell 30 May 1879 – 7 April 1961
Monte Oliveto
1912oil on cardboardAccession no: 0.1998On display, Gallery 16 -
Omega Workshops, Bloomsbury, London 1913 – 1920 , Vanessa Bell (designer, fabric and garment) 30 May 1879 – 7 April 1961
Pair of Pyjamas in Maud design
1918; fabric designed 1913printed linenAccession no: 849A98(a&b) -
Vanessa Bell 30 May 1879 – 7 April 1961
Seated figure
1913oil on boardAccession no: 20209P63On display, Gallery 13 -
Vanessa Bell 30 May 1879 – 7 April 1961
The school room
1937colour lithograph on paperAccession no: 413G6 -
Vanessa Bell 30 May 1879 – 7 April 1961
View of Venice
1957oil on canvasAccession no: 0.1999On display, Gallery 13