Vanessa BELL (1879

Events in Vanessa BELL (1879 - 1961)'s life
Date	Age	Event	Place	Notes	Src
30 May 1879		Vanessa BELL was born	Hyde Park Gate
1895	16	Death of mother Julia Prinsep STEPHEN (aged 49)		Note 1
1904	25	Death of father Leslie STEPHEN (aged 72)
07 Feb 1907	27	Married Clive BELL (aged 26)
04 Feb 1908	28	Birth of son Julian BELL	46 Gordon Square
1910	31	Birth of son Quentin BELL
18 Jul 1937	58	Death of son Julian BELL (aged 29)		Note 2
1961	82	Vanessa BELL died	Charleston

Note 1: death was premature, devastated Leslie, had influenza less than 2 mo before death

Note 2: ambulance driver for Spanish Medical Aid in Spanish Civil War, wounded at Battle of Brunete, died in hospital of wounds

Personal Notes:

EDUCATION:
-Arthur Cope's School of Art in South Kensington (Hussey 21)
-accepted into the Painting School of the Royal Academy of Art (Hussey 22)

MAJOR LIFE EVENTS:
-has a miscarriage in April 1911 (Hussey xi)
-son Julian dies in July 1937

CHILDHOOD TEMPERAMENT:
-"rivalrous, mutually demanding, and often critical intimacy" with Virginia (Lee 116)
-"There was something grim in their [Vanessa and Virginia] feeling for each other. Passages of estrangement and hostility strained their relationship" (Lee 116)
-Vanessa "mothered" Virginia and "used to rub her with scents and put her to bed" (Lee 117)
-"perceived by the others as the helpful, responsible one, truthful and honest to a fault, silent, grave, determined. She was in the burdensome position of the child in charge" (Lee 117)
-Virginia "valued above all her sister's calm honesty, her grave assumption of responsibility for the younger ones, her quiet unceasing benevolence, her practicality and her good sense" (Bell 23)
−"honest and forthright" (Bell 26)
−"too shy" to exhibit her work in Virginia's newspaper (Bell 28)
-As seen in her "almost maternal" care of Thoby--"shielding him from harm, sacrificing herself for his benefit and loving him tenderly--Vanessa seemed to be a "thorough Pattle...delighted to give" (Bell 23-24)

ADULT TEMPERAMENT:
-Virginia found Vanessa often "unyielding and cold" (Lee 117)
-"Virginia was in love with her sister. And Vanessa depended on her more than she acknowledged" (Lee 117)

ADULT SOCIAL BEHAVIOR:
-"racially prejudiced against, and critical of, Leonard" (Lee 117)
-"she was not only a married woman with a career but also one who entertained and established close friendships with such men at Lytton Strachey and others of the Bloomsbury Group" (Hussey 22)

ADULT WORK HABITS:
-"At 18...now the 'woman' of the family, making the household arrangements and enduring Leslie's weekly inspection of the household accounts...In addition to her domestic duties, she pursued her vocation as an artist" (Webb 15)

SIGNS OF MANIA/HYPOMANIA:

SIGNS OF DEPRESSION:
-"...like the other Stephen children, she seems to have been prone to crippling depressions" (Hussey 21)
-"Vanessa's daughter, Angelica Garnett, has described her mother's intermittent bouts of deep depression, sometimes lasting two years; in 1894...Leslie Stephen reported that both Vanessa and her sister were 'seriously depressed'" (Hussey 21-22)

PHYSICAL AILMENTS/CHRONIC ILLNESSES:
-had typhoid at the same time as Thoby, but she recovered as Thoby's condition worsened (Webb 26)

ALCOHOL/OTHER DRUG ABUSES:

HOSPITALIZATION:

OTHER:

Source References:

1. Type: Book, Title: Virginia Woolf: A Biography, Auth: Quentin Bell, Publ: Mariner Books, Date: 1974

- Reference = 23, 24, 26, 28 (Name, Notes)

2. Type: Book, Title: Virginia Woolf, Auth: Hermione Lee, Publ: Vintage Books, Date: 1996

- Reference = 116, 117 (Name, Notes)

3. Type: Book, Title: Virginia Woolf, Auth: Ruth Webb, Publ: Oxford University Press, Date: 2000

- Reference = 15, 26 (Name, Notes)

7. Type: Book, Abbr: Virginia Woolf A to Z, Title: Virginia Woolf A to Z: A Comprehensive Reference for Students, Teachers, and Common Readers to Her Life, Work, and Critical Reception, Auth: Mark Hussey, Publ: Facts on File, Inc., Date: 1995

- Reference = xi, 21, 22 (Name, Notes)

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