Vanessa Bell and the world of Charleston

“It was exhilarating to have left the house in which had been so much gloom and depression,” Vanessa wrote later, “to have come to those white walls, large windows opening onto trees and lawns, to have one’s own room, be master of one’s own time.” The seeds of the Bloomsbury Group were planted when the sisters became hostesses for parties and ‘daring conversation’ when Thoby brought home from Cambridge an influential group of young men avidly engaged in arts, literature, and radical politics.

Vanessa began painting in earnest and in 1905 initiated the Friday Club, a prominent band of artists and exhibitors. In 1910, she was mesmerised by the work of Cézanne, Matisse and Picasso, whose work shocked most Edwardian viewers. “Here was a sudden pointing to a possible path, a sudden liberation and encouragement to feel for