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VANESSA BELL Clive Bell in a Punt
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Vanessa Bell has been considered an important artist in England since before World War I. Recently, she has been rediscovered by an international audience; not as the painter-sister of Virginia Woolf, or as the wife of art critic Clive Bell, but as the central figure of "Bloomsbury", and a painter who made an important contribution to the transformation of European art in the first half of the 20th century. Clive Bell in a Punt is a radical painting for its date of execution of c. 1908. Using foreshortening and a flattened picture plane, Vanessa Bell has captured a quintessentially British moment; punting is a time honored tradition in England. With quick, bravura brushstrokes and her superb sense of design Vanessa depicts her husband relaxing in the boat. The piece de resistance of this wonderful painting is that Bell has cleverly incorporated her husband's signature blue socks. |
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American School Robert Salmon |
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