In the 1930s, Vanessa Bell was ranked among the most famous contemporary artists. The departure from avant-garde painting only added to her popularity. The style found by Bell as a result of indefatigable abstractionist and post-impressionist searches, was distinguished by imagery, delicacy and refinement. Among her best late works, historians of English painting are called “Portrait of Mrs. Grant”, written in 1934, and “Still Life with a Jug.”
After 1939, the “Bloomsbury Muse” almost did not leave Charleston. She, as always, worked a lot – most often in the garden or in her workshop. The works of Vanessa Bell of this period are bribed by the orderliness of the composition and some kind of elusive note, sounding light and sad. The still-life “Roses in a Chinese Vase”, 1947, is delightful in color and mood. A live sketch of “Henriette and Julian at the garden pond in Charleston”, in which the artist captures the lightheads of her grandchildren captivates with its touching simplicity.