Beyond the Canvas: Vanessa Bell’s Legacy in Art, Design, and Feminism

When it comes to post-Victorian feminists, Vanessa Bell is my favorite. She wasn’t a feminist in the way of Emmeline Pankhurst or Millicent Fawcett, out marching or lobbying for change. Instead, Vanessa quietly broke barriers, carving a path that redefined what it meant to live, work, and create as a woman in her time.

Vanessa’s quiet revolution was rooted in maintaining her identity as a woman while embracing the social expectations of motherhood, home-making, and entertaining. She reimagined those roles through the lens of art, lifestyle, and design, creating a space where her creativity could flourish.

The Bloomsbury Lifestyle

If you read my earlier post on Vanessa Bell, you might remember that after her father died, she and her siblings moved to 46 Gordon Square, Bloomsbury, in central London. At the time, the area was known for being a haven for new intellectuals and artists and this suited the family well.

They began their Thursday night gatherings, opening their home to other kindred spirits - mostly university friends of Vanessa’s brother, Thoby. At first, Vanessa and her sister acted as joint hostesses, but soon they became contributing members of the on-going conversations. During these soirées, ideas were shared and close, life-long bonds were formed. Think of it as a buzzing hive where collaborative thought was normal, each thought building on the other.

It was during those evenings, that Vanessa and Clive Bell formed a strong friendship that led eventually to marriage. Vanessa and Duncan Grant also became friends.

Later, Vanessa moved to Charleston House in near Firle, Sussex, to escape London during World War I and provide sanctuary for Duncan Grant and his lover, David “Bunny” Garnett (both conscientious objectors). By then her marriage to Clive Bell had floundered due to his infidelity.

Vanessa and Duncan had strong feelings for each other, despite his homosexuality. Artistically, they worked well together and formed a domestic relationship that lasted until Vanessa died.

“As a family whose lives were excluded from traditional domestic experience, Bell and Grant worked to redefine what it might look like to live inside a household. They painted an entirely new way to experience the space of home.” ~ Melissa Wyse

Whether they sought to do so or not, the Bloomsbury Group broke through barriers around sexuality, marriage and gender.

Breaking New Ground - British Modernism

In 1910, Roger Fry, a member of the Bloomsbury Group, mounted an extraordinary exhibition called “Manet and the Post-Impressionists.” The exhibit brought works by Manet, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin and Matisse to London and heralded the beginning of Modernism in England. The exhibit was considered audacious and revolutionary. Fry and his partners, Clive Bell and Desmond MacCarthy, were not sure it would go over well. In fact, it was a huge commercial success.

The exhibit was influential on Vanessa. She became one of the first British artists to explore abstraction, using large shapes of color to create her compositions. Her painting Studland Beach, circa 1912, is one such example. Later, in 1912, when Roger Fry asked her to submit work for the Second Post-Impressionist Exhibition, Studland Beach was one of four.

Studland Beach, Vanessa Bell, circa 1912

New Feminism

During both World Wars, women were called - and permitted - to do much of the work that men had done prior to their enlistment. But after the wars ended, particularly World War I, returning troops were keen to go back to the status quo. And in many cases, women in the UK were as well. But with a difference.

They had gained an independence that wouldn’t simply just disappear. And so, New Feminism - Post-World War I feminism - developed. This was a feminist thought that gave credence to the strength of being an autonomous woman. While gender stereotypes remained, women embraced their roles as being as important as a man’s.

Vanessa Bell painted what she knew, which was a domestic life. Her paintings “delineate Bell’s position: a young mother, gazing through the window into a world through which she cannot move with freedom.” ~ Hettie Judah

While keeping with domestic interiors and scenes, her compositions and portrayals of women were different compared to those done in the past. Her subjects may have been working on mundane tasks, but they were depicted as strong, smart, confident, and independent women.

In this way, Bell contributed to New Feminism movement.

Bridging the Worlds of Decorative and Fine Arts

In 1913, Vanessa Bell cofounded the Omega Workshops with Roger Fry and Duncan Grant. The purpose was to foster the integration of decorative and fine arts, as well as innovative interior design. Financial support was provided to artists to design and create all sorts of domestic items, ranging from rugs to furniture to candle shades.

Vanessa designed textiles and rugs for the Omega Workshops and in doing so, it exposed her even more to the power of line, color and pattern. This work found its way back in to her paintings which can be seen in her piece The Conversation, painted in 1916.

A Conversation, Vanessa Bell, 1916

At the same time, she and Duncan Grant were happily busy decorating Charleston House. Everything was painted - and re-painted. They used pattern and color to decorate the furniture, fireplaces and doors. They even created faux wall paper by hand-painting repeating patterns on the walls.

Becoming “interior decorators,” the pair accepted various commissions to paint murals and interiors of near-by buildings. The heavily decorated walls completed in Berwick Church is one of them.

Famous Women Dinner Service

In 1932, Kenneth Clark and his wife, Jane, commissioned Bell and Grant to create a full dinner set of plates and dishes. Instead, they received 50 hand-painted portrait plates depicting famous women.

Thus was born the Famous Women Dinner Service. The famous women included notables such as Jane Austen, Queen Victoria, Cleopatra, Pocahontas and even Vanessa’s sister, the writer Virginia Woolf.

This was a call for social change - not what the Clark’s had expected - and in the woman’s domain.

Impact on Interior Decoration Today

Vanessa and Duncan, continue to inspire today; visitors to Charleston House grow each year. A number of British designers currently in vogue have attributed their inspiration to Vanessa, Duncan and the decor at Charleston.

One of the reasons is that it emphasizes functionality - think Omega Group. Another is that the creative work undertaken at Charleston was of a forgiving type. Everything was painted free-hand. There weren’t really any “mistakes” and if they didn’t like something, they just re-painted.

Fabric and wallpaper designer Molly Mahon says “Rather than taking a formal approach, as a trained artist might, it has inspired me to believe in my own creativity — which has formed the bedrock of my business today.”

Annie Sloan, the creator and founder of Chalk Paint - used for painting furniture - was deeply inspired by Charleston and recently launched three new paint colors based on her time there - Firle, Rodmell and Tilton. In fact, I first learned of Charleston House by taking an online class with Annie Sloan on Create Academy.

I Love Vanessa

You can probably tell, by now, that I absolutely adore Vanessa Bell. She was curious, creative, intellectual, able to hold her own, and accepted what she loved and was good at it.

She knew who she was and embraced the life she decided to live. I can’t think of a better epitaph.