Virginia Woolf's many novels--notably Night and Day (1919), Jacob's
Room (1922), Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927) and The
Waves (1931)--transformed ideas about structure, plot and
characterization. Sister of Vanessa Bell, Woolf was a central figure in
the Bloomsbury Group, that union of friends who revolutionized British
culture with their innovative approach to art, design and society in the
early years of the twentieth century. Portraiture figured greatly in
Woolf's life: portraits by G.F. Watts and photographs made by her aunt,
Julia Margaret Cameron, furnished rooms in which she lived; written
portraits were produced in the family home; and her father, Leslie
Stephen, published short biographies of Samuel Johnson, Pope, Swift,
George Eliot and Thomas Hobbes, while editing the first 26 volumes of
the Dictionary of National Biography. Throughout her life, Woolf, a
sharp observer and a brilliant wordsmith, composed memorable
vignettes-in-words of people she knew or encountered, and was herself
portrayed by artists and photographers on many occasions. This
beautifully illustrated book looks at Woolf's appearance and that of the
world around her, pointing to her desire to understand better the moment
in which she lived. In charting the emotional milestones in Woolf's
life--her love affairs, wartime experiences and the depression that
resulted in her suicide in 1941--acclaimed art historian, critic and
biographer Frances Spalding acknowledges the seen and unseen aspects of
her subject. Virginia Woolf: Art, Life and Vision includes 90
beautifully reproduced key works from public and private collections,
documentary photographs, extracts from Woolf's writings and a chronology
of her life and work.
