Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)
Vanessa Bell (Kensington 1879 – Firle 1961)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1912
Materials
Oil on panel
Measurements
410 x 310 mm
Place of origin
Sussex
Order this imageCollection
Monk's House, Rodmell, East Sussex (Accredited Museum)
On show at
Monk's House, Rodmell, East Sussex, London and South East, National Trust
NT 768417
Summary
Oil painting on panel, Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) by Vanessa Bell (Kensington 1879 – Firle 1961), circa 1912. A half-length portrait facing, head and gaze to the left, seated at a table with her right arm resting on an open book, short brown hair, wearing a green blouse with a pale grey/blue cardigan. Probably painted at Asheham House, Sussex, the house that Leonard Woolf and Virginia occupied for holidays and weekends from 1912, until their marriage in 1919, when they had to surrender the lease to the owner. It stood just off the road between Lewes and Newhaven, in East Sussex, near the village of Beddingham. It is similar to another portrait of the sitter almost in the same pose and clothes which is on loan from a private collection at Leeds City Art Gallery by Roger Fry.
Provenance
Purchased by National Trust in 1984 from Sotheby's
Credit line
Monk’s House, Rodmell, The Virginia & Leonard Woolf Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
Vanessa Bell (Kensington 1879 – Firle 1961), artist of original
Exhibition history
Vanessa Bell (1879 - 1961), Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, 2017, no.p.64
References
Virginia Woolf: Art, Life and Vision (ed. Frances Spalding), National Portrait Gallery, London, 10 July to 26 October 2014 The National Trust Magazine, Number 91 Autumn 2001, p. 25 (Alan Bennet: A favourite painting) Vanessa Bell (Ed. Sarah Milroy & Ian A. C. Dejardin) published on the occasion of the exhibition: Vanessa Bell , Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, 8 February - 4 June 2017, p.64, p.69, p.198