Vanessa Bell - The Schoolroom

Giclée Print on 310 gsm thick, 100% cotton rag. Hand-numbered and hand-embossed. Limited edition of 850....

Image size 40.2 x 53.9 cm
Overall Paper Size 61 x 72 cm
Framed size approx. 64 x 75 cm

In many ways this is both quintessential Bloomsbury and closely representative of Vanessa Bell’s work: the colours are strong, the patterns bold, the décor of a type Bell might herself have designed for the Omega Workshops.

This print was initially commissioned by Robert Wellington and John Piper for their second series of Contemporary Lithographs. There’s was a venture which sought to offer work by acclaimed artists to places not known for their expenditure on art – to schools for instance. The school room depicted here is perhaps of a type not widely recognized, but it portrays the kind of place that Vanessa Bell, who was home educated, and who started a small home school for her own children, would have known.