Vanessa Bell

Vanessa Bell (1879–1961) has been known as the still, quiet centre around which the Bloomsbury Group revolved, renowned for her beauty, her complex romantic entanglements and, later, her domestic gravitas – and as the sister of Virginia Woolf. But Bell was also one of the most advanced British artists of her time, with her own distinctive vision, boldly interpreting new ideas about art which were brewing in France and beyond.

This publication beautifully showcases Bell’s pioneering oil paintings, photographs, ceramics, fabrics, decorative screens and works on paper in a revelatory affirmation of her vibrant and wide-ranging talent. Including more than 180 colour plates, Vanessa Bell is a definitive record of Bell’s accomplishments, enhanced with photography of Charleston, the Sussex farmhouse that she occupied with creative flair alongside Duncan Grant and the rest of her unconventional family.

With sections devoted to portraiture, landscape, still life, design, domestic scenes and female subjects, the book gathers together a rich chorus of voices – from renowned Bloomsbury scholars to emerging experts – delivering a fresh view of an intrepid modern artist seen clearly on her own terms at last.