Preliminary design for Lady Hamilton Rug 1914

Vanessa Bell made this preliminary design for a Lady Hamilton Rug with watercolor and ink on graph paper. You can see her working out the image in the blocks, the colours shifting as she considers the overall design. I can imagine Bell in her studio, surrounded by sketches and colour swatches, trying out different ideas. The graph paper gives a structure that she can push against, echoing through the hard geometric lines with the more organic shapes and brushstrokes. The image seems to break apart and come together all at once. I love the dark blue and orange sections of the work, divided by a dramatic black diagonal, and how this gives way to the more muted tones in the other sections. There is something so compelling about the contrast, like a conversation between restraint and exuberance. You can see the legacy of her father, Leslie Stephen, an eminent Victorian man of letters, and her peer group which included Roger Fry, Duncan Grant and her sister Virginia Woolf. These artists, writers, and thinkers were constantly challenging and inspiring each other. I find that incredibly exciting.