Vanessa Bell

Vanessa Bell (London, 1879 – Surrey, 1961) was an English painter and interior designer, a member of the Bloomsbury Group and the sister of the novelist Virginia Woolf. Her work, centred on portraits, landscapes and domestic scenes, is one of the key references for British painting of the twentieth century.

She was educated at home and, in 1896, attended Sir Arthur Cope's art school; in 1901 she studied painting at the Royal Academy's schools. After the death of her father, Sir Leslie Stephen, she moved with her siblings to Bloomsbury, where a circle of artists, writers and intellectuals gathered. In 1907 she married the critic Clive Bell. The couple had an open marriage, and Vanessa had long relationships with the critic Roger Fry and the painter Duncan Grant, with whom she had a daughter, Angelica, in 1918.

Her painting moved from the bright colours and bold forms of the Post-Impressionists, whose exhibitions Roger Fry organised, toward more abstract design. Her notable works include Studland Beach (1912), The Tub (1918), Interior with Two Women (1932) and portraits of Virginia Woolf, Aldous Huxley and David Garnett. She also designed the jackets for her sister's books, published by the Hogarth Press.

In 1913 she, Fry and Grant founded the Omega Workshops, which produced furniture, textiles and decorative objects. She settled with Clive and Grant at Charleston Farmhouse near Firle, where she spent much of her life. After Virginia's death in 1941 she withdrew into her painting and lived the rest of her life in relative isolation. Her son Julian died in 1937 while driving an ambulance during the Spanish Civil War.

Her legacy continues through exhibitions: in 2017 the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London staged a retrospective of her work. She has also appeared on screen, played by Janet McTeer in Carrington (1995) and by Miranda Richardson in The Hours (2002).