Bloomsbury and France : art and friends

"Bloomsbury on the Mediterranean," is how Vanessa Bell described France in a letter to her sister, Virginia Woolf. Remarking on the vivifying effect of Cassis, Woolf herself said, "I will take my mind out of its iron cage and let it swim.... Complete heaven, I think it." Yet until now there has never been a book that focused on the profound influence of France on the Bloomsbury group. In Bloomsbury and France: Art and Friends, Mary Ann Caws and Sarah Bird Wright reveal the crucial importance of the Bloomsbury group's frequent sojourns to France, the artists and writers they met there, and the liberating effect of the country itself. Drawing upon many previously unpublished letters, memoirs, and photographs, the book illuminates the artistic development of Virginia and Leonard Woolf, Clive Bell, David Garnett, E. M. Forster, Lytton Strachey, Dora Carrington, and others. The authors cover all aspects of the Bloomsbury experience in France, from the specific influence of French painting on the work of Roger Fry, Duncan Grant, and Vanessa Bell, to the heady atmosphere of the medieval Cistercian Abbaye de Pontigny, the celebrated meeting place of French intellectuals where Lytton Strachey, Julian Bell, and Charles Mauron mingled with writers and critics, to the relationships between the Bloomsbury group and Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Stein, Andre Gide, Jean Marchand, and many others. Caws and Wright argue that Bloomsbury would have been very different without France, that France was their anti-England, a culture in which their eccentricities and aesthetic experiments could flower. This remarkable study offers a rich new perspective on perhaps the most creative group of artists and friends in the 20th century. In Bloomsbury and France: Art and Friends, Mary Ann Caws and Sarah Bird Wright reveal the crucial importance of the Bloomsbury group's frequent sojourns to France, the artists and writers they met there, and the liberating effect of the country itself. Drawing upon many previously unpublished letters, memoirs, and photographs, the book illuminates the artistic development of Virginia and Leonard Woolf, Clive Bell, David Garnett, E.M. Forster, Lytton Strachey, Dora Carrington, and others. The authors cover all aspects of the Bloomsbury experience in France, from the specific influence of French painting on the work of Roger Fry, Duncan Grant, and Vanessa Bell, to the heady atmosphere of the medieval Cistercian Abbaye de Pontigny, the celebrated meeting place of French intellectuals where Lytton Strachey, Julian Bell, and Charles Mauron mingled with writers and critics, to the relationships between the Bloomsbury group and Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Stein, Andre Gide, Jean Marchand, and many others.Caws and Wright argue that without France there would have been no Bloomsbury, that France was their anti-England, a culture in which their eccentricities and aesthetic experiments could flower. This remarkable study offers a rich new perspective on one of the most creative groups of artists and friends in the 20th century. In Bloomsbury And France: Art And Friends, Mary Ann Caws And Sarah Bird Wright Reveal The Crucial Importance Of The Bloomsbury Group's Frequent Sojourns To France, The Artists And Writers They Met There, And The Liberating Effect Of The Country Itself. Drawing Upon Many Previously Unpublished Letters, Memoirs, And Photographs, The Book Illuminates The Artistic Development Of Virginia And Leonard Woolf, Clive Bell, David Garnett, E. M. Forster, Lytton Strachey, Dora Carrington, And Others.--book Jacket. Beginnings: Friends In France, 1896-1910 -- Lytton Strachey, Dora Carrington, Ralph Partridge -- Virginia Woolf, Leonard Woolf, Vita Sackville-west -- Clive Bell And His Circle -- John Maynard Keynes -- Ottoline Morrell -- Ethel Sand And Nana Hudson -- Frances Partridge -- Painter In France, 1910-1921: Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell, Roger Fry -- Painter In Provence, 1921-1938 ; St.-tropez, 1921-1927 ; Duncan Grant Aboard The Arequipa, 1924-1925 ; Cassis, 1925-1929 ; Last Years In The Midi, 1930-1938 -- Visual Translations -- The Maurons, E.m. Forster, Julian Bell, And Bloomsbury -- Intellectuals At Pontigny -- Roger Fry's France -- Simon And Dorothy Bussy, André Gide -- Literary Translations. Mary Ann Caws, Sarah Bird Wright ; With A Preface By Michael Holroyd. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 407-409) And Index. A literary and visual overview of the experiences of the Bloomsbury group of writers and artists, including Virginia Woolf, Duncan Grant, Clive Bell, Roger Fry and Dora Carrington. In particular, this work describes their travels in France which shaped much of their thinking, painting and writing