Vanessa Bell

Pheasants

1931

Not on display

Artist: Vanessa Bell 1879–1961
Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Dimensions: Support: 908 × 730 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented by Sir Kenneth Clark (later Lord Clark of Saltwood) through the Contemporary Art Society 1946
Reference: N05749

Display caption

At the mid-point of her career, Vanessa Bell’s painting celebrated her own family, her house and her garden at Charleston in Sussex.

She loved France, and regarded her painting as a kind of Impressionism. This painting of a brace of pheasants, with a bottle and glass of (undoubtedly French) red wine, conveys the pleasures of food and drink. She uses them as a subject to show her skill with colour, with a warm and rich harmony of tones. The painting is quite large for her at this time.

Gallery label, September 2004

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Catalogue entry

N05749 PHEASANTS 1931

Inscr. ‘Vanessa Bell 1931’ b.r.
Canvas, 35 3/4×28 3/4 (91×73).
Presented by Sir Kenneth Clark through the Contemporary Art Society 1946.
Coll: Purchased by Sir Kenneth Clark at Agnew's 1931.
Exh: Recent Pictures by British Artists, Agnew's, November–December 1931 (39); British Council, Contemporary British Art, Toledo, U.S.A., 1942 (6); Arts Council and tour, 1964 (53).
Repr: John Russell, From Sickert to 1948, 1948, pl.23.

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