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Coversheet for Thesis in Sussex Research Online A University of Sussex DPhil thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Please visit Sussex Research Online for more information and further details THE POLITICS OF PARTNERSHIP: VANESSA BELL AND DUNCAN GRANT, 1912-1961 Darren K. Clarke A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of DPhil in the Department of Art History University of Sussex September 2012 2 Declaration: I hereby declare that this thesis has not been and will not be submitted in whole or in part to this or any other University for the award of any other degree. Darren K. Clarke 3 UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX Darren K. Clarke The degree of DPhil, September 2012 The Politics of Partnership: Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, 1912-1961 Summary This thesis analyses the relationship of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, artists that were central to the visual culture of the Bloomsbury group. The title of this project positions ‘partnership’ as a connecting force between the two artists, a term I interpret as a series of layers, boundaries, and thresholds that are in a constant state of flux, over-lapping, layering and leaking. By mapping the artists’ presence I am able to construct a new model of partnership. Chapter one considers the artists’ signing and marking of their work, examining the variations of the signature, tracing its evolution, its presence and its absence, its location on the work and the calligraphy of the mark. By examining the various ways that Bell and Grant had of signing and of not signing their work and the use and function of the mechanically reproduced signature, I demonstrate the uneasy relationship that can occur between objects, names and signatures. Chapter two focuses on the pond at Charleston, the home that the artists shared for almost half a century, which is central to many of the narratives and mythologies of the household and is the subject of many paintings and decorations. I chart how the artists map this space by repeatedly recording it and how the pond acts as a layered topography for the exploration and presentation of gender, queerness and familial relationships. Chapter three continues the process of examining boundaries and layers by exploring the artists’ often problematic relationship to clothes and to the delicate threshold between fabric and skin that often loosens and gapes. I cast the artists as agents of disguise and masquerade in which uncertain and unstable boundaries are created. I map the transference of fabric and demonstrate how this textile threshold ruptures, how the body leaks, leaving marks and traces. 4 Contents: Summary page 3 Acknowledgements page 6 List of Abbreviations page 7 List of Illustrations page 8 Introduction Partnership page 20 Literary Review page 21 Charleston page 29 Chapters page 31 Chapter One: Signature in the Frame On the Signature page 33 Inscriptions page 34 Not signing page 37 Signing page 43 Slipping page 45 Gifting the Signature page 52 The Mechanical Signature page 56 Vice versa page 63 After I’m Gone page 65 Conclusion page 66 Chapter Two: Pond Life Fascination of the pond page 67 Mapping the pond page 69 Framing the Map page 74 Mapping the un-mappable page 76 Drawing near page 78 Gazebo and snow page 80 Reflections on the pond page 85 The Sacred Lake page 92 Mapping the Queer pond page 96 Mapping the familial page 103 Identifiable people page 109 Patriarchy and children page 112 Matriarchy and children page 116 Conclusion page 118 Chapter Three: Loose Covers Introduction page 119 Part 1: Bell Mirror, mirror page 121 5 Spitting Image page 125 “brute, raw fabric” page 130 The Second Grave page 132 Closet Space page 137 Fragments page 139 Part 2: Grant “don’t trouble to dress” page 143 Striptease page 147 Disguise Craze page 152 Re-vealed page 165 Petite Morte page 173 Conclusion page 183 Bibliography page 185 Illustrations page 204 6 Acknowledgements: I would like to thank the Arts and Humanities Research Council for funding this Collaborative Doctoral project and providing me with the opportunity to explore the partnership of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. I would also like to express my gratitude to Dr Meaghan Clarke, my supervisor at Sussex University who provided unstinting support and guidance. During Meaghan’s maternity leave in the third year of the project, I was fortunate to have Professor David Mellor in her stead. Charleston and the Charleston Trust were central to this project and provided unparalleled support and research opportunities. The Trust’s Curator, Dr Wendy Hitchmough provided invaluable and impeccable supervision with expertise, advice, patience and encouragement throughout the project. I would like to thank the Director of the Trust, Colin McKenzie for allowing me unlimited access to Charleston Farmhouse and its collection, as well as exclusive access to the, as yet un-catalogued Angelica Garnett Gift which became one of the central strands of my work. The Charleston Trust also gave me the opportunity to curate two exhibitions during the course of the project. The first, Fragments in 2009, focused on Bell and Grant’s textile designs, and Naked in 2011, which explored the artists’ responses to the life model. I would also like to thank Brighton Museum and Art Gallery for whom I was assistant curator for the 2011 exhibition Radical Bloomsbury: The Art of Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell. I would like to show my appreciation to Richard Shone and Simon Watney for patiently answering my questions and for providing crucial material for my research. I would also like to thank Tony Bradshaw of The Bloomsbury Workshop, and David Herbert for their expertise. During the project I consulted a number of archives and galleries and I would like to express my thanks in particular to Adrian Glew at the Tate Archives for allowing me to read the un-catalogued correspondence from Vanessa Bell to Duncan Grant, and Special Collections at Sussex University who hold copies of the correspondence from Duncan Grant to Vanessa Bell. Also my thanks are due to: Gary Johnson of Haringey Archive Services, Bruce Castle Museum, Tottenham; Simon Lake, Leicester Art Gallery; Tim Craven, Southampton Art Gallery; and the staff at the Towner Gallery, Eastbourne. Also the counter staff at the Courtauld Library, the British Library and St. Peter’s House Library of the University of Brighton. I would like to thank my parents, Ken and Irene, and my partner Andrew Connal for his encouragement, patience and proof-reading skills. Dedicated to Roz Cousley 1970-2010 7 Abbreviations: Letters from Vanessa Bell to Duncan Grant that were deposited by Henrietta Garnett in 2008 in the Tate Gallery Archives were not catalogued at the time of writing. These I have called the Duncan Grant Papers. The Angelica Garnett Gift, presented to the Charleston Trust in 2008 is also yet to be catalogued though I have included the temporary storage location of pieces presented at the time of writing. Tate Archives TGA Duncan Grant Papers TGA/DGP The Charleston Trust Archive TCTA The Angelica Garnett Gift TCTA/TAGG 8 Illustrations: Chapter One: Signature in the Frame Fig.1.01 Duncan Grant’s and Vanessa Bell’s gravestones, Firle church, East Sussex, photograph taken by author. Fig.1.02 Vanessa Bell’s gravestones, Firle church, East Sussex, photograph taken by author. Fig.1.03 Duncan Grant, design for Vanessa Bell’s gravestone, c.1961, pencil on paper, 15 x 10.8cm, The Charleston Trust, Angelica Garnett Gift, box.21. Fig.1.04 Angelica Garnet, enamelled saucer, date unknown, diameter 9.6cm, The Charleston Trust, CHA/C/202. Fig.1.05 Vanessa Bell, painted wooden box, 9 x 25 x 16.2cm The Charleston Trust, CHA/F/159. Fig.1.06 Signature detail, Vanessa Bell, Portrait of Virginia Woolf, 1934, oil on canvas, 82 X 63cm, private collection, on loan to The Charleston Trust. Fig.1.07 Signature detail, Duncan Grant, By the Fire, c.1916-17, oil on canvas, 53.2 x 35.5cm, private collection, on loan to The Charleston Trust. Fig.1.08 Signature, detail, Standing Male Nude (Tony Asserati), c.1935, oil on canvas, 97 x 45.5cm, The Charleston Trust, CHA/P/84. Fig.1.09 Vanessa Bell, copy of Maurice de Vlaminck’s Poissy-le-Pont, 1952- 56, oil on canvas, 59 x 79.5cm, The Charleston Trust, CHA/P/62. Fig.1.10 Signature detail, Vanessa Bell, copy of Vlaminck’s Poissy-le-Pont, 1952-56 Fig.1.11 Example of Maurice de Vlamink’s signature, reproduced on the cover of Catalogue Raisonné de l’oeuvre gravé, gravures sur cuivre, lithographies (Paris: Flammarion, 1974) Fig.1.12 Duncan Grant, Bathing, 1911, oil on canvas, 228.6 x 306.1cm, Tate N04567 Fig.1.13 Signature detail, Duncan Grant, Bathing, 1911, reproduced in Paint and Purpose ed. Stephen Hackney, Rica Jones and Joyce Townsend, (London: Tate Gallery, 1999) p.113. Fig.1.14 Vanessa Bell, The Visit, c.1921, whereabouts unknown, reproduced in the Illustrated London News, 21 May 1921, p.683. Fig.1.15 Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell Painting, 1915, oil on canvas, 76cm x 56cm, National Gallery of Scotland GMA 900 NGS. Fig.1.16 Signature detail, Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell Painting, 1915.
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