Vanessa Bell was the older sister of Virginia Woolf. Her reputation as a painter began to ascend after the first London Artists Association exhibition in 1926. The early watercolor shows her closeness to the Bloomsbury Group, who produced both fine art and decorative arts. Worn down by the demands of running a huge household, she devoted less and less time to painting
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Artwork Details
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Title:Design for Chair Seat
Artist:Vanessa Stephen Bell (British, London 1879–1961 Charleston, Firle, Sussex)
Date:1922
Medium:Watercolor and charcoal on paper
Dimensions:15 × 16 in. (38.1 × 40.6 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Gift of Bannon and Barnabas McHenry, 2018
Accession Number:2018.886.1
Inscription: Dated (verso): 1922
[Anthony d'Offay, London, until 1987; sold in 1987 to McHenry]; Bannon and Barnabas McHenry, New York (1987–2018; their gift to MMA)
Durham, N.C. Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University. "A Room of Their Own: The Bloomsbury Artists in American Collections," December 18, 2008–April 5, 2009, no. 114 (as "Design for chair-seat," lent by Bannon and Barnabas McHenry).
Ithaca, N. Y. Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University. "A Room of Their Own: The Bloomsbury Artists in American Collections," July 18–October 18, 2009, no. 114.
Oakland, Calif. Mills College Art Museum. "A Room of Their Own: The Bloomsbury Artists in American Collections," November 7–December 13, 2009, no. 114.
Evanston, Ill. Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University. "A Room of Their Own: The Bloomsbury Artists in American Collections," January 15–March 14, 2010, no. 114.
Northampton, Mass. Smith College Museum of Art. "A Room of Their Own: The Bloomsbury Artists in American Collections," April 3–June 15, 2010, no. 114.
University Park. Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University. "A Room of Their Own: The Bloomsbury Artists in American Collections," July 6–September 26, 2010, no. 114.
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