Vanessa Bell (1879-1961)

Garden in Sunlight was painted in the late 1930s and shows the north, garden-side of Charleston; the double doors lead into Duncan Grant’s studio and the flash of orange under the deckchair is a mosaic of a goldfish, circa 1917.

Afra Leckie was a nurse and friend to Vanessa, and in Susan Groig Bell's book, Vanessa's Garden, Garden in Sunlight is discussed: 'In 1958, three years before her death, Vanessa selected the last three paintings she lent to Afra Leckie from her storeroom. All of them depict the garden in what Vanessa once described to Julian as "a dithering blaze of colour". One of these paintings is a rendering of the corner just outside Duncan's studio on a bright and sunny spring day: the trees beyond the garden wall have not yet sprouted any leaves, but a deck chair stands invitingly over the "fish mosaic"' (Singular Continuities. Tradition, Nostalgia and Identity in Modern British Culture, Stanford, California, 2000, p. 119). In 1960, when Leckie moved away, Vanessa gifted Garden in Sunlight to her.

We are very grateful to Richard Shone for preparing this catalogue entry.