Bloomsbury Portraits: Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant and Their Circle

Bloomsbury Portraits: Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant and Their Circle by Shone, Richard. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780714829616.

Few groups of artists and writers have been the object of as much study as the Bloomsbury group. This book, originally published in 1976, was the first to look at the contribution of the painters of the group, Vanessa Bell (1879-1961) and Duncan Grant (1885-1978), not only within the context of Bloomsbury but also from the wider perspective of modern British art. In a vivid narrative, Richard Shone weaves together the artists private lives and professional careers during the first decades of this century. He illuminates their friendships within Bloomsbury, notably with the critic and painter Roger Fry, with Virginia Woolf, Lytton Strachey, Maynard Keynes and Lady Ottoline Morrell, and in the world of painting with figures such as Picasso, Derain and Sickert. Chapters are devoted to the artists early careers, to the advent of the Omega Workshops, the artists discovery of Charleston (their home in Sussex) and their work as decorative designers between the two World Wars. Bloomsbury Portraits, which received wide acclaim on first publication, has long been out of print. This edition has been revised throughout, and incorporates new information and over 80 colour illustrations. Much of the vividness of the book and its authentic evocation of the Bloomsbury artists lives and times comes from Shones first-hand experience of Charleston and his friendship with Duncan Grant in the last years of the painters life.