Although Vanessa Bell (1879-1961) was a prominent member of the Bloomsbury Group and her domestic designs at Charleston Farmhouse are well known, she is perhaps better recognised for her bohemian lifestyle and as the sister of writer Virginia Woolf. Her own artistic work is often overlooked.
In a new exhibition at Charleston in Lewes, showing over 100 paintings, prints and fabrics from all stages of her life, Bell’s skills as an artist and designer come into their own. It’s a revelation.
Vanessa Bell’s early life
The older daughter of Sir Leslie Stephen and Julia Duckworth, Vanessa and sister Virginia were educated at home, though her two brothers Thoby and Adrian attended school.
In 1901, she studied painting at the Royal Academy, tutored by American artist John Singer Sargent. A portrait of her father from around 1902-3 shows a bearded, patriarchal figure, in dark, sombre surroundings, in contrast to her later, vibrantly-coloured portraits. She described their house in Hyde Park Gate as “full of Victorian sentiment” and “pitch-dark” rooms.
Experimenting with abstraction
Following the death of their parents, the siblings moved to Gordon Square in Bloomsbury, where meetings of Thoby’s friends developed into the Bloomsbury Group. The “gloom and depression” of her upbringing were replaced with “white walls, large windows opening on to trees and lawns”. With this “new beginning”, Bell’s ideas about art were influenced by art critic Clive Bell, who she married in 1907, and Roger Fry, a painter and critic who studied art in Paris and raised public awareness of modern art.
Bell started to experiment with abstract painting, one of the first British artists to do so. This was a short-lived period, but one which influenced her later work in design. Landscape with Buildings, c.1912, shows a series of rooftops as blocks of colour, while Street Corner Conversation, c.1913 (above), and the group portrait in Conversation Piece, 1912 (main image) focus on form, gestures and colour. This is also obvious in the portrait of Iris Tree, 1915 (below), which is almost an abstract composition in black and red. Bell later recalled “a great deal of excitement about colour” during this time.
Bell’s early reputation led to her being exhibited alongside Picasso and Matisse at the Second Post-Impressionism Exhibition, which Fry organised in 1912. Unusually, she continued to paint alongside bringing up her sons Julian and Quentin, born in 1908 and 1910. The exhibition includes a beautiful painting of baby Julian Asleep.
Distinctive design: Omega Workshops and Hogarth Press
Bell’s life-long interest and practice in design started at around the same time and she became a foremost British designer. With Fry and artist Duncan Grant, she helped found the Omega Workshops in 1913, which aimed to blur the divisions between decorative and fine arts. Bell brought the ideas explored in her paintings into exciting textile designs such as ‘Maud’, painted screens and ceramics, some of which are on display, giving a taste of quite an extensive body of design work.
She and Grant received many commissions for public spaces and society homes, such as the huge decorated panels shown in the exhibition, described by The Studio magazine as “rich in colour, harmonious in design”. Grant and Bell also painted the murals in Berwick Church, the first time that artists had decorated a church interior. In addition, Bell designed highly distinctive book covers for the Hogarth Press, including covers for her sister Virginia’s books.
Charleston: the heart of Vanessa Bell’s creativity
In 1916, during the First World War, Bell and Grant moved to Charleston Farmhouse. With Grant’s lover David Garnett and Bell’s children, they formed an unconventional household. A move to the countryside meant that Grant and Garnett could carry out agricultural work rather than being sent to prison for being conscientious objectors.
After her first visit to Charleston, Bell wrote: “One is overcome by the extraordinary peace and beauty of the place”, and this atmosphere is captured in some of my favourite paintings. Interior with Artist’s Daughter, c.1935-6, depicts Bell and Grant’s daughter Angelica reading in the studio, which she later described as her “sanctuary”. There are rich colours in the book covers, tablecloth, rug and fabrics, but the overwhelming impression is peaceful, amplified by the white flowers in the foreground.
View into a Garden, 1926, is an evocative painting of Bell’s studio, looking out into the garden. The placing of the chairs, with the doorway between, framed by curtains, is like looking into a mirror – a tranquil scene within a scene. This was one of Bell’s favourite places to sit.
Bell followed an unconventional and fiercely independent lifestyle, though she acknowledged her privileged position – as shown in Interior with a Housemaid, c.1939 (above) – and the freedom that this gave her to paint. Apart from time spent in London and Europe, she spent the rest of her life at Charleston, where she continued to create still lifes and portraits but also, with Grant, decorated every surface of the house.
This exhibition of Bell’s work is beautiful and surprising, and shows much more about her creative output and lifelong commitment to art than I had previously been aware of. Do go and visit.
Vanessa Bell: A World of Form and Colour is at Charleston in Lewes until 21 September 2025. All images are reproduced with kind permission of Charleston in Lewes.
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