Vanessa Bell by Frances Spalding

Author:Frances Spalding
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2021-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

Vanessa was frequently the butt of her sons’ facetious humour. ‘Nessa knows nothing’, they often declared, for they had begun to have interests that extended beyond her own. Quentin, when given a radio one Christmas declared he had spent one evening listening to Bolshevist propaganda broadcast from Leningrad; Julian, now in his final year at Leighton Park, demonstrated his growing interest in politics by entering a speech-day debating competition with the topic ‘The Present Industrial System’. According to the Reading Observer he expressed himself vehemently, upheld socialism, declared money earned on the Stock Exchange to be stolen property and endured much heckling. When he announced that unless conditions changed soon England would have a violent and bloody revolution, the laughter was so great it was some time before he could continue.

Julian was speaking at the time of the 1926 General Strike. Vanessa was out of the country when this occurred and as yet politics remained on the very periphery of her life. In Venice, where she went that summer with Duncan and Angus Davidson, her chief role was to impress on the languid Angus that the Hogarth Press was making a loss and therefore he needed to work harder. They put up at the Hotel Manin before moving to rooms at 234 S. Gregorio. At first Vanessa indulged lazily in her surroundings, doing a little sightseeing, less painting and, as always when abroad, more reading than usual. Aside from French novels, she tackled Beatrice Webb’s My Apprenticeship, finding this lady’s persistent search for ‘general principles’ bearable in the Italian sunshine where few principles survived.

From Venice they visited Ravenna, to see again the mosaics; Ferrara, to see the Cosimo Tura frescos; and Padua for the Scrovegni Chapel, Vanessa finding Giotto more of a colourist than she had previously thought. Until now, she and Duncan had exercised restraint when they caught sight of pottery, but in Ravenna they were completely undone. In a shop filled with canaries of every shape and size - in the egg, in the nest and on the wing - the two of them fell with delight on jug, plate and bowl, making numerous acquisitions. In their enthusiasm they learnt from the shopkeeper that the pots were made by a family in a nearby village. The next day Duncan and Vanessa took a train out to this village, discovered the family and were made welcome by the women. They watched as the daughter freely decorated a pot and then the father appeared and began to throw pots with such economy of movement that it was obvious he could produce whatever shapes he desired. In the exchange that followed they asked if the potter would allow them to decorate certain pieces themselves and proposed a plan, which never matured, to return that autumn to commission an entire service. Laden with parcels they travelled back to Ravenna where Vanessa’s bedroom had begun to resemble a pottery shop.

In Venice Vanessa paced the Giudecca deep in thought: Virginia had sent her criticisms of the first exhibition of the London Artists’ Association.

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