Painter of portraits, figures and still-life in oils, designer of fabrics, pottery, book jackets and interior decorations. Daughter of Sir Leslie Stephen and sister of Virginia Woolf, she studied art under Sir Arthur Cope and at the Royal Academy Schools under John Singer Sargent. In 1907 she married Clive Bell and worked mainly in London, Sussex and France.

Bell exhibited first at the New Gallery 1905, and at the NEAC, the AAA and at numerous London galleries. She became a member of the LG in 1919 and her work was exhibited at the second Post-Impressionist Exhibition 1912. A central figure in the Bloomsbury group, she founded the Friday Club in 1905 and was influenced by Roger Fry and Duncan Grant. As co-director of the Omega Workshops she carried out many decorative projects, particularly with Duncan Grant. The impact of Post-Impressionism caused a radical change in her work: she began to use large forms outlined in black and reduced the composition to an arrangement of flat arreas of colour, so showing everything in its most basic form, e.g. Studland Beach, 1912-13 (Tate Gallery). Influenced by Matisse she established a leading role as a colourist before 1920 with painting that combined broken brush marks with areas of clear colour, e.g. Mrs Mary Hutchinson, 1914 (Tate Gallery). Between 1914 and 1915 she produced some pure abstracts but later returned to a more traditional naturism and greater realism in works that centred around her friends, still-life and landscapes.

LIT:
Vanessa Bell, Frances Spalding, 1983; the Arts Council memorial exhibition catalogue, 1964.