Vanessa Bell: Portrait of the Bloomsbury Artist

by Frances Spalding

Overview

The definitive and authorised biography of the artist Vanessa Bell.

Even through the lens of the twenty-first century, the story of Vanessa Bell's life is unorthodox. A powerful magnetic figure, Bell lived at the heart of the Bloomsbury Group and was often the core figure around which the disparate individuals of the movement revolved.

Her art and designs – so often overshadowed by her sister Virginia Woolf's writings and fame and by the interest in her own unconventional life – made a significant contribution to the history of the Bloomsbury Group. Yet, until this authorised biography was written, she has remained a largely silent and enigmatic figure.

In this captivating account, acclaimed art historian and biographer Frances Spalding restores Bell to the heart of the Bloomsbury Group, illuminating an exceptional life and the free-spirited circle among which she lived.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780755643547
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	04/01/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	416
File size:	85 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Frances Spalding is an art historian, critic and biographer, and a leading authority of Bloomsbury. She wrote an introduction to the subject, The Bloomsbury Group, for the National Portrait Gallery's 'Companion' series, and has written biographies of Roger Fry, Duncan Grant, Gwen Raverat and of the poet Stevie Smith, as well as Vanessa Bell.

For ten years she edited the Charleston Magazine. Her recent books include John Piper, Myfanwy Piper: Lives in Art and Prunella Clough: Regions Unmapped. She is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Art, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Professor of Art History at Newcastle University, and was awarded a CBE in 2005.
Frances Spalding is an art historian, critic and biographer, and a leading authority of Bloomsbury. She wrote an introduction to the subject, The Bloomsbury Group, for the National Portrait Gallery's 'Companion' series, and has written biographies of Roger Fry, Duncan Grant, Gwen Raverat and of the poet Stevie Smith, as well as Vanessa Bell.

For ten years she edited the Charleston Magazine. Her recent books include John Piper, Myfanwy Piper: Lives in Art and Prunella Clough: Regions Unmapped. She is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Art, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Professor of Art History at Newcastle University, and was awarded a CBE in 2005.

Table of Contents

List of Plates
Preface to New Edition
Preface
Acknowledgements

Always the Eldest 1879–1895
Mrs Young's Evening Dress 1895–1904
Changing Places 1904–1906
Mr and Mrs Clive Bell 1907–1909
Petticoats over Windmills 1910–1912
Asheham 1912–1914
Granite and Rainbow 1914–1916
One Among Three 1916–1918
At Home and Abroad 1919–1926
Charleston in France 1927–1930
High Yellow 1930–1934
Between Bloomsbury and China 1935–1937
Bitter Odds 1937–1945
The Attic Studio 1945–1961

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

"…an excellent biography: it could hardly be bettered... she has brought Vanessa Bell back to life...As a chronicle of human entanglements, and of the ways in which they were resolved, it wil have an enduring fascination...Vanessa Bell adds a new and indispensable dimension to our knowledge of Bloomsbury, and it is very much to be welcomed."

Times Literary Supplement

…a compelling life, one worth telling, unusual in its social and intellectual contrasts, formidable in its cast of characters, poignant in its alternations of happiness and despair.

Spectator

Vanessa Bell emerges from Frances Spalding's sensitive and scholarly biography as an unexpectedly formidable figure...the central portrait is full and generous and it rings wonderfully true.

The London Times