In 1920 Virginia Woolf’s sister Vanessa Bell painted “Mrs Dalloway’s Party,” a painting that quickly became shrouded in mystery.
Exhibited briefly in 1922, the highly praised painting disappeared until British art dealer Anthony d’Offay offered it in 1983 from the estate of Virginia Woolf. It then vanished for more than 60 years until it turned up in a sale of items from Woolf’s estate.
Questions
Questions about the painting are many. If it was a gift to Virginia, why did she hide it away? Vanessa Bell paintings were usually still lives, but this one clearly depicts a narrative. What is the story she wanted to show? Are the figures real people? If so who are they?
The preliminary title of Virginia Woolf’s most famous novel, Mrs Dalloway, published five years later, was The Party, so was there a connection between painting and novel?
Howard Ginsberg has offered an intriguing explanation for these unanswered questions in his latest play, “The Mysterious Gift to Virginia Woolf.”
Watch the free recording of an online reading of this play on YouTube.
More about the painting
For more background on the painting, listen to a 2023 27-minute podcast “Mrs. Dalloway’s Party,” that features Dr. Karina Jakubowicz. In it, she speaks with Ginsberg, the painting’s owner.
The Charleston Trust has raised £20,000 of the £60,000 it needs to help save “Lessons in the Orchard,” from sale at auction.
“Lessons in the Orchard” (1917) by Duncan Grant. (C) The Charleston Trust
Duncan Grant’s 1917 painting is considered one of the most important paintings of early life at Charleston, as Grant painted it the summer after he and Vanessa Bell first arrived at the Sussex home in 1916. It was also one of Vanessa Bell’s favorite paintings and has hung by her bedside since that time.
According to Charleston, “The much loved painting serves as a poignant reflection of Grant’s experiences as a conscientious objector during the First World War, depicting a scene of domestic tranquillity amidst the chaos of the era. The painting captures a different kind of family structure, offering a lens into themes of social privilege and chosen kinship that have always been present here at Charleston.”
The family who has loaned Charleston the painting since the 1980s has given Charleston the opportunity to secure its permanent place within its collection.
With the support of the Trustees of the ArtFund, Charleston has secured a grant of £40,000 towards the purchase price. However, it must raise a further £60,000 to ensure that “Lessons in the Orchard” remains in the care of Charleston’s collections team and is returned to public display for generations to enjoy.
Norwegian multidisciplinary artist Ane Thon Knutsen is at it again — at combining Virginia Woolf and the letterpress, that is.
This time, the Oslo Academy of the Arts professor has debuted her installation, “Printed Words: Adaptations of Virginia Woolf,” at University Archives and Special Collections at the Florida Gulf Coast University library.
In “Printed Works,” the self-taught typesetter who has exhibited other letterpress projects and installations related to Woolf, adapts a selection of Virginia Woolf’s self-published short stories.
“Knutsen’s artistic research aims to point out the influence typography, particularly typesetting, might have on the content of the text. It speaks to the power of designing and publishing one’s own work,” notes the FGCU Special Collections and Archives website.
Her first Woolf project: a book
In “A Printing Press of One’s Own,” which premiered at the 27th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf” at the University of Reading, England, in 2017, Ane produced a hand-set volume that includes Ane’s personal essay about her experience finding a space of her own in which she could pursue her passion — typesetting.
Ane Thon Knutsen with her hand-printed volume introduced at the 2017 Woolf conference, “A Printing Press of One’s Own”
According to Ane, “The book is an essay referring to A Room of One’s Own (1929) by Virginia Woolf. The essay reflects upon women’s role in letterpress, and the importance of a room of one’s own in artistic practices.
“In this book I am investigating the first books printed by Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, both in practice and in the written ‘dialogue’ between Virginia Woolf and myself, as we are both self-taught typesetters.”
Her second: up on the walls
In the winter of 2019, Ane had a major installation of Woolf’s first short story, “The Mark on the Wall,” (1917) in Kunstnernes Hus, an art institution in the centre of Oslo.
As described by Nell Toemen, who visited the exhibit and shared her thoughts with Blogging Woolf, Woolf’s story was “handprinted on I don’t know how many papers, white and off-white, neatly arranged so as to fill all the walls. If you would walk the room in eleven rounds you would be able to read the whole story. Reading it this way is an absolutely different experience than reading the story in a book.”
Page 2 of the “On Being Ill” project
Her third: via Instagram
In March of 2020, as lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic spread around the globe, Ane used her printing press to print one sentence on one sheet of paper every day from “On Being Ill,“ Woolf’s 1930 essay.
At the time, she said she was using her printing press to print one sentence on one sheet of paper every day from “On Being Ill” “until we can go back to normal. I hope I will not make it through, as we’re counting about 140 sentences, and the paper is restricted to leftovers from my stock.”
About Ane Thon Knutsen
Ane is internationally known for her letterpress-focused installations and artists’ books. The associate professor of graphic design at the Oslo Academy of the Arts has won numerous awards for her work. She owns and works from her private letterpress studio in Oslo.
The Sea Blazed Gold is Louisa Albani’s latest illustrated pamphlet featuring Virginia Woolf, and its publication coincided with the Sept. 11 unveiling of the plaque at Talland House that commemorates Woolf’s connection with the seaside town of St. Ives in Cornwall.
Talland House was Woolf’s summertime home in St. Ives from 1882-1894. Her father, Leslie Stephen, had the lease on Talland House from 1878-1895.
Third featuring Woolf
The Sea Blazed Gold is the third of Albani’s pamphlets to feature Woolf. The first, A Moment In The Life Of Virginia Woolf, explored how the author created her vivid seascapes while living in Tavistock Square in London. The second, The Journey to my Sister’s House, focused on her time in the South Downs, where her sister Vanessa Bell lived.
The Sea Blazed Gold takes its title from a passage in Woolf’s 1931 novel The Waves. In it, Albani weaves her artwork with excerpts from Woolf’s diaries, letters and novels to celebrate Woolf’s time in St. Ives and its impact on her life.
The artist uses mixed media, including collage, metallic stitching and pen and ink in the 36-page publication printed on her own press.Text contributors include Maggie Humm, one of the leaders of the campaign for the Talland House plaque, and writer Astra Bloom.
Purchase and shipping details
The cost of The Sea Blazed Gold is £13. Albani’s press, Night Bird Press, limits its shipment of pamphlets to within the UK. For overseas shipping, contact Nash Robbins at Much Ado Books: shop@muchadobooks.com
Read more on the topic in the October/November issue of My Cornwall.
Virginia Woolf will officially arrive in Richmond, where Woolf lived for 10 years, on Nov. 16. The life-sized bronze statue of the famous author will be unveiled at 2:30 p.m. by her great niece Emma Woolf and Emma’s 2-year-old son Ludovic Cecil Woolf, along with Sophie Partridge, great, great niece of Virginia Woolf, who is making the trip to Richmond from France.
Emma is the daughter of the late publisher Cecil Woolf, Leonard Woolf’s nephew, and Jean Moorcroft Wilson, the noted biographer of World War I poets.
Designed by acclaimed artist Laury Dizengremel, the sculpture will be installed on the upper terraces of Richmond Riverside. No tickets are required for the event. Note: The closest London Underground station is Richmond (on the District line and London Overground).
More at Books on the Rise
After the unveiling, Peter Fullagar, author of Virginia Woolf in Richmond, will speak at 4 p.m. at Books on the Rise, a new local book shop, about Woolf’s years in Richmond. Tickets are required.
The shop is also selling all things related to Woolf, from books to maquettes and merchandise.
Project background
In 2017, arts and education charity Aurora Metrolaunched the project to commission, fund and erect a statue of Woolf in Richmond Upon Thames. It recognizes Woolf’s life in Richmond from 1915 to 1924, along with her founding of the Hogarth Press with husband Leonard and the publication of her first novel, The Voyage Out, in 1915.
Aurora Metro raised £50,000 to fund the statue. The charity’s sister company is Aurora Metro Publications, a local publisher with three decades of publishing original voices and promoting work in translation.
Aurora Metro is still soliciting funds to cover the installation, associated literary events and maintenance of the statue, which is the only full-sized statue of Woolf in the UK.
Follow on social media
For the latest news about the statue, follow on Twitter @VWoolfstatue or on Facebook/VWoolfStatue.
