Coming Home: Virginia Woolf by Vanessa Bell


Delightful  display at Charleston Farmhouse showing the lovely portrait of Virginian Woolf by her sister Vanessa Bell on loan from the National Portrait Gallery.

I’m very fond of this picture and it was lovely to see it in a new setting. The loan is part of a series by the National Portrait Gallery called Coming Home which sees 50 portraits of iconic individuals from the national collection travelling to the towns and cities most closely associated with their subjects. What a lovely idea and I’ll certainly look out for more of these.

It was particularly nice that this was painted in 1912 as Asheham just a few miles from Charleston while Virginia was living there. It’s a tender, domestic picture yet in a modernist style with blocks of colour in the background and the wonderful orange chair outlining the figure. I think it shows the affection of one sister to another although I’m not sure I normally picture Virginia knitting in my mind.

Closing 19 January 2020

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