Vanessa Stephen, c. 1881

Virginia Woolf was very close to her sister Vanessa, aged about two in this picture. Vanessa attended the Painting School of the Royal Academy, married the art critic Clive Bell in 1907, and had a distinguished career as a painter. Vanessa Bell (1879-1961) had two sons with Clive Bell and a daughter with fellow painter Duncan Grant.

Reproduction of plate 36e from Leslie Stephen’s Photograph Album
Original: albumen print (14.2 x 10.0 cm.)
Mortimer Rare Book Room, Smith College