Alfriston

Vanessa Bell (1879–1961) was a painter and designer, the daughter of Sir Leslie Stephen, first editor of the Dictionary of National Biography, and elder sister of Virginia Woolf. She studied at the Royal Academy Schools from 1901 to 1904. In 1907 she married Clive Bell, the art critic, and their home became a focal point of the Bloomsbury circle. Four of her paintings were exhibited in the second Post-Impressionist Exhibition in 1912. She worked with Roger Fry at Omega Workshops designing textiles, embroideries, mosaics, painted furniture and also book jackets for the Hogarth Press. From 1913 onwards she lived with the painter and designer Duncan Grant and they worked together decorating houses and furniture. With Duncan Grant she painted the murals at Berwick Church, Sussex from 1940 to 1942. A member of the London Group from 1919, she continued to paint and exhibit still life, landscapes and portraits.