Vanessa Bell

1879–1961

Vanessa Bell, ‘Abstract Painting’ c.1914
Abstract Painting c.1914
© Estate of Vanessa Bell, courtesy Henrietta Garnett
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In Tate Britain

Walk Through British Art: 1910

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In Tate Britain

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Biography

Vanessa Bell (née Stephen; 30 May 1879 – 7 April 1961) was an English painter and interior designer, a member of the Bloomsbury Group and the sister of Virginia Woolf.

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Arts and crafts movement Baroque Bloomsbury 43 more art terms …

Artworks

Vanessa Bell, ‘Abstract Painting’ c.1914

Vanessa Bell Abstract Painting

c.1914
T01935
Vanessa Bell, ‘Interior with a Table’ 1921

Vanessa Bell Interior with a Table

1921
N05078
Vanessa Bell, ‘Nude’ c.1922–3

Vanessa Bell Nude

c.1922–3
N05077
Vanessa Bell, ‘Mrs St John Hutchinson’ 1915

Vanessa Bell Mrs St John Hutchinson

1915
T01768
Vanessa Bell, ‘Studland Beach. Verso: Group of Male Nudes by Duncan Grant’ c.1912

Vanessa Bell Studland Beach. Verso: Group of Male Nudes by Duncan Grant

c.1912
T02080
Vanessa Bell, ‘The Tub’ 1917

Vanessa Bell The Tub

1917
T02010
Vanessa Bell, ‘Still Life on Corner of a Mantelpiece’ 1914

Vanessa Bell Still Life on Corner of a Mantelpiece

1914
On display at Tate Britain part of Walk Through British Art T01133
Vanessa Bell, ‘Frederick and Jessie Etchells Painting’ 1912

Vanessa Bell Frederick and Jessie Etchells Painting

1912
T01277
See all 12

Artist as subject

Duncan Grant, ‘Vanessa Bell’ 1942

Duncan Grant Vanessa Bell

1942
N05405
Dame Ethel Walker, ‘Vanessa’ 1937

Dame Ethel Walker Vanessa

1937
N05038
William Roberts, ‘No! No! Cézanne never used it’ c.1934

William Roberts No! No! Cézanne never used it

c.1934
View by appointment T12724
Ann Travis, ‘Bloomsbury Pie’ 1974

Ann Travis Bloomsbury Pie

1974
View by appointment P06597
Duncan Grant, recipient: Vanessa Bell, ‘Postcard from D.G. [Duncan Grant] to Vanessa Bell’ 5 August [1935]

Duncan Grant, recipient: Vanessa Bell Postcard from D.G. [Duncan Grant] to Vanessa Bell

5 August [1935]
TGA 8010/5/1695
Duncan Grant, recipient: Vanessa Bell, ‘Letter from Duncan [Grant] to Vanessa Bell [London]’ [c.1923]

Duncan Grant, recipient: Vanessa Bell Letter from Duncan [Grant] to Vanessa Bell [London]

[c.1923]
TGA 8010/5/1304
Duncan Grant, recipient: Vanessa Bell, ‘Letter from Bear [Duncan Grant] to Vanessa Bell [possibly at Asheham]’ [1918]

Duncan Grant, recipient: Vanessa Bell Letter from Bear [Duncan Grant] to Vanessa Bell [possibly at Asheham]

[1918]
TGA 8010/5/1157
Duncan Grant, recipient: Vanessa Bell, ‘Letter from D. [Duncan Grant] to Vanessa Bell’ [28 December 1928]

Duncan Grant, recipient: Vanessa Bell Letter from D. [Duncan Grant] to Vanessa Bell

[28 December 1928]
TGA 8010/5/1450
Duncan Grant, recipient: Vanessa Bell, ‘Letter from Bear [Duncan Grant] to Vanessa Bell’ 20 June 1924

Duncan Grant, recipient: Vanessa Bell Letter from Bear [Duncan Grant] to Vanessa Bell

20 June 1924
TGA 8010/5/1328
See all 696

Film and audio

Duncan Grant, ‘Bathing’ 1911
Podcast

Walks of art: Bonnie Greer on Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group

The writer and critic explores the friendships, work and designs behind this radical set of artists

Features
Tate Etc

Opinion: 'Middlebrow' art

‘Highbrow’ and ‘lowbrow’ art – the cultural hierarchies have been with us for over 100 years, but it is time ...

Roger Fry, ‘Still Life with T’ang Horse’ c.1919–21
Art Term

Bloomsbury

Bloomsbury is the name commonly used to identify a circle of intellectuals and artists who lived in Bloomsbury, near central ...

Vanessa Bell, Abstract Painting c.1914
In Focus

Abstract Painting c.1914 by Vanessa Bell

This In Focus presents the first sustained analysis of this enigmatic painting – now regarded as a key work in Bell ...

Vanessa Bell, ‘Abstract Painting’ c.1914
Tate Etc

Vanessa Bell, Abstract Painting c.1914: A poem by Jack Underwood

A poem by Jack Underwood in response to Vanessa Bell's 'Abstract Painting', c.1914
Oskar Kokoschka, ‘The Crab’ 1939–40
Blog

Migrations from the Tate Archive

One of the unexpected pleasures of curating the Refugees from Nazi Europe section of the Migrations exhibition has been the ...

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The New Moon; or, ‘I’ve lost My Boat, You shan’t have Your Hoop’’ exhibited 1840
Tate Etc

MicroTate 22

Individual reflections on a work in the Tate collection

Hand painted calendars by Vanessa Bell done as Christmas gifts for friends in 1951
Tate Etc

Family pleasures: Behind the curtain

Henrietta Garnett, a regular visitor to the Tate archive, recognises two painted calendars done by her grandmother Vanessa Bell.

Tate Etc

My dearest Clive...: Behind the curtain

Inspired by her mother’s love letters to her father, Tishani Doshi reads the moving correspondence in the Tate archive between ...

Vanessa Bell, ‘Studland Beach. Verso: Group of Male Nudes by Duncan Grant’ c.1912
Read

On the beach

Tate Liverpool Member Janet Webb finds help as well as inspiration for her own work in Vanessa Bell’s painting Studland Beach

Sketches, letters, etc.

Vanessa Bell, recipient: Duncan Grant, ‘Letter from Vanessa Bell to Duncan Grant’ [24 June 1953]

Vanessa Bell, recipient: Duncan Grant Letter from Vanessa Bell to Duncan Grant

[24 June 1953]
View by appointment TGA 20078/1/44/234
Vanessa Bell, recipient: Duncan Grant, ‘Letter from Vanessa Bell to Duncan Grant’ [31 July 1930]

Vanessa Bell, recipient: Duncan Grant Letter from Vanessa Bell to Duncan Grant

[31 July 1930]
View by appointment TGA 20078/1/44/171
Duncan Grant, recipient: Vanessa Bell, ‘Page 4’ [1916]

Duncan Grant, recipient: Vanessa Bell Page 4

[1916]
TGA 8010/5/1137/4
Duncan Grant, recipient: Vanessa Bell, ‘Page 2’ [30 November 1916]

Duncan Grant, recipient: Vanessa Bell Page 2

[30 November 1916]
TGA 8010/5/1133/2
See all 913

Related art terms

Arts and crafts movement Baroque Bloomsbury British impressionism British Surrealism British War Art Camden Town Group Constructivism Cubism Dutch Golden Age painting Euston Road School Fauvism Fitzroy Street Group Friday Club Futurism Gothic Grafton Group Grand manner High Renaissance Impressionism London Artists’ Association London Group Modern English Watercolour Society Naive Neo-romanticism Neoclassicism New English Art Club Northern Renaissance Post-impressionism Pre-Raphaelite Primitivism Realism Realism Renaissance Romanticism Section d’Or Senefelder Club Society of Mural Painters Society of Women Artists Surrealism Symbolism Unit One Victorian/Genre Vorticism Whitechapel Boys medieval art

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