VANESSA BELL (BRITISH, 1879-1961)
Hydrangeas
signed with initials 'VB' (lower right)
oil on canvas
40 x 37.3 cm. (15 3/4 x 14 3/4 in.)
Painted circa 1951

Please note this work is also signed by Duncan Grant 'VB' and titled 'hydrangeas' by Simon Watney (verso)

Provenance
With The Bloomsbury Workshop, London, where purchased by the present owner

We are grateful to Richard Shone for his assistance with cataloguing this lot.

Hydrangeas was created during years of 1951-52, and captures how pivotal painting was to Bell and how crucially it featured as part of the artist’s every day. The atmosphere of collaborative pursuits that existed between her and close members of her creative circles is deeply imbedded within this painting and refenced in many ways. Namely her close friend, partner and fellow Bloomsbury Group member Duncan Grant, and her son, Quentin Bell are referenced within the painting. The pot was almost certainly produced by Quentin Bell and painted by Vanessa, with the back of the canvas marked with Duncan Grant’s hand.

“the firm pillar of our existence…sensible and physically beautiful”
(Quentin Bell, discussing his mother, Vanessa)

Bell’s commitment to both her family and her own artistic explorations, is captured during her time in Charleston, where she moved to in 1916, and remained until she died in 1961. Whilst her and Grant’s romantic relationship subsided, their lifelong friendship and commitment to creativity is found in many examples of both of their works, from portraits of one another and examples such as this, Hydrangeas, which in many ways reflects Quentin’s statement of his mother as the ‘pillar’, creating in a multitude of ways, from painting, to pottery, designing and textiles, clothing and furniture. All elements of her existence pointed towards post-expressionist aesthetic, through the use of bold colours, textures, colours and shapes. Charleston, their Sussex farmhouse, has come to be in essence the embodiment of Bell’s interdisciplinary approach to her own creativity, leaving no surface untouched by her vision.

Despite Bell’s historic overshadowing by notable figures in her circle, her first husband Clive Bell, close friend Roger Fry, sister Virginia Woolf, and finally, livelong partner Duncan Grant, Bell’s own personal contribution to British Art is widely document and reflected in the present day. This was not only recognised by Dulwich Picture Gallery in their 2017 retrospective, but has since been notable in the inclusion of Bell works in major institutions, such as The National Portrait Gallery, the Tate, and Yale Center for British Art.

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