Vanessa Bell (British, 1879-1961) Design for cross-stitch chair back for...

Vanessa Bell (British, 1879-1961)
Design for cross-stitch chair back for Virginia Woolf I
stamped with initials 'VB' (lower left)
pastel
30.5 x 40.6 cm. (12 x 16 in.) (sheet); 21.4 x 34.4 cm. (8 1/2 x 13 1/2 in.) (image)
Executed circa 1930-32
Provenance
With The Bloomsbury Workshop, London
Sale; Christie's, New York, 1 December 2004, lot 121 (as Flowers on a Tabletop by a Window), where acquired by the present owner

The present work relates to the needlepoint design for a set of dining chairs, made by Grant and Bell for their Music Room exhibition at the Lefevre Gallery in early 1933, an endeavour which was partly underwritten by Virginia Woolf. When the show was over, Woolf kept the chairs for her Sussex home Monks House.

We are grateful to Richard Shone for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.