Vanessa Bell

Pheasants

1931

Not on display

Artist: Vanessa Bell 1879–1961
Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Dimensions: Support: 908 x 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

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.

[no further details]