Clive Bell - Wikipedia Clive Bell From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search English art critic Portrait of Clive Bell by Roger Fry (1924 c.) Arthur Clive Heward Bell (16 September 1881 – 17 September 1964)[1] was an English art critic, associated with formalism and the Bloomsbury Group. He developed the art theory known as significant form. Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Origins 1.2 Marriage and other liaisons 1.3 Significant form 2 Political views 3 Works 4 References 5 Sources 6 External links Biography[edit] Origins[edit] Bell was born in East Shefford, Berkshire, in 1881, the third of four children of William Heward Bell (1849–1927) and Hannah Taylor Cory (1850–1942). He had an elder brother (Cory), an elder sister (Lorna, Mrs Acton), and a younger sister (Dorothy, Mrs Hony). His father was a civil engineer who built his fortune in the family coal mines in Wiltshire in England and Merthyr Tydfil in Wales – "a family which drew its wealth from Welsh mines and expended it on the destruction of wild animals."[2] They lived at Cleeve House, Seend, near Devizes, Wiltshire, where Squire Bell's many hunting trophies were displayed. Marriage and other liaisons[edit] Bell was educated at Marlborough College and at Trinity College, Cambridge,[3] studying history. In 1902 he gained an Earl of Derby scholarship to study in Paris, where his interest in art began. On returning to London early in 1907 he met and married Vanessa Stephen, the artist sister of Virginia Woolf.[4][5][6] They had two sons, Julian and Quentin, who both became writers. Julian joined the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War as an ambulance driver and was killed in 1937 by an enemy shell, aged 29.[7] By World War I their marriage was over. Vanessa had begun a lifelong relationship with Duncan Grant, and Clive had a number of liaisons with other women including Mary Hutchinson. However, Clive and Vanessa never officially separated or divorced. Not only did they visit each other regularly, they also sometimes spent holidays together and paid "family" visits to Clive's parents. Clive lived in London but often spent long periods at a farmhouse in Charleston, Sussex, where Vanessa lived with Duncan and her three children by Clive and Duncan. He supported her wish to have a child by Duncan and allowed his wife's only daughter, Angelica, to bear his surname. Vanessa's daughter by Duncan, Angelica Garnett (née Bell), was raised as Clive's daughter until she married. She was informed, by her mother Vanessa, just prior to her marriage and shortly after her brother Julian's death, that Duncan Grant was her biological father.[8] According to historian Stanley Rosenbaum, "Bell may, indeed, be the least liked member of Bloomsbury.... Bell has been found wanting by biographers and critics of the Group – as a husband, a father, and especially a brother-in-law. It is undeniable that he was a wealthy snob, hedonist, and womaniser, a racist and an anti-Semite (but not a homophobe), who changed from a liberal socialist and pacifist into a reactionary appeaser. Bell's reputation has led to his being underestimated in the history of Bloomsbury...."[9] Significant form[edit] Main article: significant form Soon after Bell met Roger Fry, he developed his art theory significant form. The two shared a passion for contemporary French art. Bell's book Art (1914) was the first publication of his theory, which he describes as "lines and colours combined in a particular way, certain forms, and relations of forms, that stir our aesthetic emotions."[10] This form can be seen in art created by many members of the Bloomsbury Group, an example being Interior at Gordon Square by Duncan Grant. Political views[edit] Bell was at one point an adherent of absolute pacifism, and during the First World War was a conscientious objector, allowed to perform Work of National Importance by assisting on the farm of Philip Morrell MP, at Garsington Manor. In his 1938 pamphlet War Mongers, he opposed any attempt by Britain to use military force, arguing "the worst tyranny is better than the best war."[11][12] However, by 1940 Bell was a supporter of the British war effort, calling for a "ceaseless war against Hitler".[12] Works[edit] Art (1914) Pot-boilers (1918) Since Cézanne (1922) Civilization (1928) Proust (1929) An Account of French Painting (1931) Old Friends (1956) References[edit] ^ Bell, Arthur Clive Heward - Oxford Reference. 2006. doi:10.1093/acref/9780199754694.001.0001. ISBN 9780199754694. Retrieved 17 September 2018. ^ Bell, Quentin Bloomsbury, London: Futura, 1974, p. 19. ^ "Bell [post Clive-Bell], Arthur Clive Heward (BL899AC)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge. ^ Virginia Woolf biography and visits Info Britain, accessed 2 October 2014. ^ "Index entry: Bell Arthur Clive H." Transcription of English and Welsh marriage registrations 1837–1983. ONS. Retrieved 24 May 2016. ^ "Index entry: Stephen Vanessa". Transcription of English and Welsh marriage registrations 1837–1983. ONS. Retrieved 24 May 2016. ^ Lee, Hermione Virginia Woolf, London: Vintage, 1997, p. 697. ^ Lee, Hermione Virginia Woolf, London: Vintage 1997 p. 698. This deception forms the central message of her memoir, Deceived with Kindness (1984). ^ S.P. Rosenbaum (2003). Georgian Bloomsbury: Volume 3: The Early Literary History of the Bloomsbury Group, 1910–1914. Palgrave Macmillan UK. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-230-50512-4. ^ Bell, Clive (1916). Art. Chatto & Windus. p. 8. ^ Susan Sellers, The Cambridge Companion to Virginia Woolf Cambridge University Press, 2010; ISBN 0521896940, (p. 23). ^ a b Lawrence James, Warrior Race: A History of the British at War, Hachette UK, 2010; ISBN 0748125353 (p. 620). Sources[edit] Bell, Clive (2015) [1914]. Art. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN 9781514244715. Bywater, William G (1975). Clive Bell's Eye. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. ISBN 9780814315347. External links[edit] Charleston Farmhouse Works by Clive Bell at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Clive Bell at Internet Archive "CLIVE BELL DEAD; ART CRITIC WAS 83; British Writer Championed Cezanne During 1920's" The New York Times, 20 September 1964 (obituary) v t e Aesthetics topics Philosophers Abhinavagupta Theodor W. Adorno Leon Battista Alberti Thomas Aquinas Hans Urs von Balthasar Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten Clive Bell Bernard Bosanquet Edward Bullough R. G. Collingwood Ananda Coomaraswamy Arthur Danto John Dewey Denis Diderot Hubert Dreyfus Curt John Ducasse Thierry de Duve Roger Fry Nelson Goodman Clement Greenberg Georg Hegel Martin Heidegger David Hume Immanuel Kant Paul Klee Susanne Langer Theodor Lipps György Lukács Jean-François Lyotard Joseph Margolis Jacques Maritain Thomas Munro Friedrich Nietzsche José Ortega y Gasset Dewitt H. Parker Stephen Pepper David Prall Jacques Rancière Ayn Rand Louis Lavelle George Lansing Raymond I. A. Richards George Santayana Friedrich Schiller Arthur Schopenhauer Roger Scruton Irving Singer Rabindranath Tagore Giorgio Vasari Morris Weitz Johann Joachim Winckelmann Richard Wollheim more... Theories Classicism Evolutionary aesthetics Historicism Modernism New Classical Postmodernism Psychoanalytic theory Romanticism Symbolism more... Concepts Aesthetic emotions Aesthetic interpretation Art manifesto Avant-garde Axiology Beauty Boredom Camp Comedy Creativity Cuteness Disgust Ecstasy Elegance Entertainment Eroticism Fun Gaze Harmony Judgement Kama Kitsch Life imitating art Magnificence Mimesis Perception Quality Rasa Recreation Reverence Style Sthayibhava Sublime Taste Work of art Related Aesthetics of music Applied aesthetics Architecture Art Arts criticism Feminist aesthetics Gastronomy History of painting Humour Japanese aesthetics Literary merit Mathematical beauty Mathematics and architecture Mathematics and art Medieval aesthetics Music theory Neuroesthetics Painting Patterns in nature Philosophy of design Philosophy of film Philosophy of music Poetry Sculpture Theory of painting Theory of art Tragedy Visual arts Index Outline Category  Philosophy portal Authority control BNF: cb12323803b (data) GND: 12312929X ISNI: 0000 0001 0858 2111 LCCN: n79046187 NDL: 00550715 NLI: 000017513 NTA: 070261148 PLWABN: 9810579960005606 RKD: 133363 SELIBR: 233716 SNAC: w6611709 SUDOC: 03215173X Trove: 791619 ULAN: 500057349 VcBA: 495/319849 VIAF: 66535955 WorldCat Identities: lccn-n79046187 Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Clive_Bell&oldid=961432403" Categories: Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge British conscientious objectors English art critics Stephen-Bell family Bloomsbury Group Philosophers of art People from Wiltshire Disease-related deaths in England Writers from London 1881 births 1964 deaths Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata EngvarB from August 2014 Use dmy dates from August 2014 Articles with Project Gutenberg links Articles with Internet Archive links Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with NDL identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLI identifiers Wikipedia articles with NTA identifiers Wikipedia articles with PLWABN identifiers Wikipedia articles with RKDartists identifiers Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers Wikipedia articles with Trove identifiers Wikipedia articles with ULAN identifiers Wikipedia articles with VcBA identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikimedia Commons Languages বাংলা Català Čeština Deutsch Español Français 한국어 Italiano Nederlands Português Русский Suomi Svenska Edit links This page was last edited on 8 June 2020, at 12:38 (UTC). Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers Contact Wikipedia Mobile view Developers Statistics Cookie statement