Clive Bell

Born into a rich, middle class mine-owning family, Clive Bell become an influential art critic in the international avant-garde art world.

Born into a rich, middle class mine-owning family, Clive Bell was educated at Cambridge where he met his best friend Thoby Stephen. He was to become an influential art critic in the international avant-garde art world. He worked closely with Roger Fry on the organisation of the two Post-Impressionist exhibitions of 1910 and 1912, and in 1914 he published his book Art in which he coined the term ‘significant form’. His theory of ‘significant form’ suggests a new hierarchy in painting in which it’s elements – colour, shapes, and forms – are more important than the subject matter. It was very popular at a time when artists were experimenting with a new style of abstract painting.

He met Vanessa Stephen, Thoby Stephen’s sister and in 1907, a year after his friend’s sudden death from Typhoid Fever, they were married. They had two children together – Julian and Quentin. Although he and Vanessa never divorced and remained friends, the marriage ceased to exist except in name. Vanessa Bell had fallen in love with fellow artist Duncan Grant and they had become lovers shortly before they moved to Charleston in 1916. Clive Bell also had other relationships, the most enduring of which was with the writer, Mary Hutchinson.

Although Bell did not move to Charleston in 1916, he was a regular visitor. Instead, he undertook farm work on Lady Ottoline Morrell’s estate in Oxfordshire. As a Conscientious Objector, Bell had to to find work of ‘national importance’ to avoid being conscripted into the armed forces, or sent to prison. He moved to Charleston on a full-time basis in 1939 at the outbreak of the Second World War. London was a particularly dangerous place during the Blitz.

Lots of changes were made to Charleston at this time, including a suite of rooms that were adapted for Bell – a bedroom, a library, a study and his own bathroom. As a man of finer tastes and a love of comfort, his bedroom was the first in the house to have carpet installed. Bell was interested in European art and culture, and was one of the first people in Britain to own an artwork by renowned Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. In fact, he visited the artist a number of time. Bell was a Francophile, and he visited France regularly. He championed the work of a number of French artists including André Derain and André Dunoyer de Segonzac and they gratefully gifted works in return.