As an emblematic figure of the Bloomsbury group, Vanessa Bell is by no means an obscure figure, declared Florence Hallett on the occasion of the I have news site. Yet although she was an accomplished painter, Bell (1879-1961) is more commonly remembered as “the freewheeling foil to her intellectually intimidating, but altogether more formidable, sister, Virginia Woolf.” His art, “too easily dismissed” as too “beautiful” and too “colorful”, often attracted less interest than his sex life.

The extent of this “neglect” is highlighted by this new exhibition in Milton Keynes, “the most comprehensive study of his career ever mounted”. The exhibition features more than 140 works, including not only paintings and drawings, but also ceramics, furniture and even designs for advertisements and book jackets. It presents Bell as a restless artist who moved “absent-mindedly from one style to another,” variously embracing the techniques of her tutor, John Singer Sargent, post-impressionism, and avant-garde abstraction. Could this lead to a questioning?