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:For the United States|American actress, see
Vanessa Bell Calloway.

Vanessa Bell (1879-1961) was an England|English
painter and interior designer and a member of the
Bloomsbury group.

She was born Vanessa Stephen, a daughter of Sir
Leslie Stephen and the elder sister of Virginia,
who later became better known as the novelist,
Virginia Woolf.  After the deaths of their
parents, the sisters lived in the Bloomsbury,
London|Bloomsbury district of London, where they
came into contact with those who would become
their set.  Vanessa studied art under Sir Arthur
Cope and, after his death, at the Royal Academy
Schools.  

In 1907 she married within the Bloomsbury Group
with Clive Bell.  They had two sons early in their
marriage, but by the World War I|First World War
both Vanessa and Clive had other partners. Vanessa
embarked on an affair on with the
bisexuality|bisexual painter Duncan Grant, with
whom she had a daughter, Angelica
Garnett|Angelica, who was later to marry his
erstwhile lover David Garnett.

Vanessa, Duncan and Duncan's lover David Garnett
moved to the Sussex countryside shortly before the
outbreak of the war, a few years later ending up
in Charleston, Sussex|Charleston, while Duncan and
David (as conscientious objectors) had to work on
the land to escape being called under arms.

Like Duncan Grant, Vanessa contributed to the
Omega Workshops established by Roger Fry. After
the World War I|First World War, she became a
member of the London Group.

Vanessa's eldest son Julian Bell|Julian died in
the Spanish Civil War in 1937.

Throughout her life her relationship with Clive
Bell remained amicable, while she formed primarily
an artistic tandem with Duncan Grant, painting in
the same (or adjacent) studio('s), commenting each
other's works.

Bell was played by Miranda Richardson in the
Academy Award winning 2002 film The Hours
(movie)|The Hours and by Janet McTeer in
Carrington.



==References==

Sketches in Pen and Ink, Vanessa Bell

A Passionate Apprentince: the early journals,
Virginia Woolf

A Moment's Liberty, Virginia Woolf

A Very Close Conspiracy: Vanessa Bell and Virginia
Woolf, Jane Dunn

Vanessa Bell, Frances Spalding

Duncan Grant, Frances Spalding

Deceived with Kindness: a Bloomsbury Childhood,
Angelica Garnett

Elders and Betters, Quentin Bell

Charleston, Quentin Bell and Virginia Nicholson

Virginia Woolf, Hermione Lee