Vanessa Bell (1879-1961) was an English artist, one of the few women painters of the beginning of the twentieth century. Stylistically, she was influenced by the major avant-garde of the period, but, while the latter often used the "modernist" style to denigrate the female body, she adopted it to give psychological depth to women. She explored their sexuality from their own perspectives, thus transforming them in real subjects of action rather than objects for the (male) gaze. Her paintings do not limit to this, but they denounce the exclusion and discrimination that women had to face in the artistic and intellectual circles of the time as well.

Vanessa Stephen Bell was born in London to a well off family. In a time in which most women were not educated, her class permitted her to study art both in a scholastic environment and by experiencing different European cultures. As scholar Frances Spalding reports, between 1896 and 1901 she took art lessons from Sir Arthur Cope in London, and between 1901 and 1904 she attended the Royal Academy under John Singer Sargent (18-34). Bell traveled widely throughout her life. Among the countries she visited, she gained particular inspiration from Italy and France. In Italy, she was able to view the works of the great masters of the past. By frequently visiting Paris, the capital of modern art, she learned about and was influenced by the unprecedented artistic developments brought about by the major avant-garde of the time.

While Bell assimilated stylistic elements from different movements, she never associated with a particular one. Yet, Spalding’s biography of this artists reveals that, throughout her life, she participated in different artistic circles. She organized "The Friday Club" (1905-1914) , a group of artists who gathered to exchange ideas and exhibit their works together throughout London. Furthermore, she contributed to Roger Fry’s Omega Workshops (1913-1919). Later on in her life, in 1939, she became a member of Mural Painters in London. Most importantly, she associated with the "Bloomsbury" group, an intellectual circle of people that gathered around London and Charleston. The most known people of the group were Virginia Woolf, who was Vanessa’s younger sister, Clive Bell, who married Vanessa in 1907, the critic and artist Roger Fry, and the painter Duncan Grant.

The artist’s oeuvre is complex. Bell experimented with different techniques and mediums. While working at Omega Workshops, she decorated and designed furniture, fabrics and everyday objects.

Researches on Bell’s The Tub are characterized by gender biases. For example, Frances Spalding values it for its psychological depth, but, at same time, she starts her essay by recounting Bell’s private life (how many children she had and whom she was married to) before speaking of her as an artist (15-20). Even worse, art historians Bridget Elliot and Jo-Ann Wallace, who condemn the condition of women painters in modernism and Bell in particular, dismiss The Tub as a "domestic genre painting" (76-77). Why is it not a psychological portrait, or a nude? As typical, women paint "feminine" subjects, and men just paint.

As Bell must have felt the burden of depicting female nudes that would automatically be compared with the canons male artists established, she had to face the problem of being a woman artist. Although she did participate in artistic circles, the male-dominated atmosphere of the artistic environment of her time was a problem. As Elliot and Wallace point out, she expressed her insecurity and low self-esteem in both her writing and painting (76-89). These scholars notice that Bell always portrayed male artists with references to their careers, for example in front of the easel, or in their library. Yet, when facing the problem of painting herself, her sister or other working women, she almost always avoided references to their professions.

As a woman, Vanessa Bell represents a wonderful subject of research and a model. She is a significant artist in many respects. Although this essay focuses only on a few aspects of her art, and only on a few pieces, it is not meant to deny other important connotations of her work. It rather suggests that some of Bell’s works are particularly important both artistically and as social documents. Although it is only speculative to assert that this artist intentionally criticized her society, her pieces have a powerful voice. As the representation of women has always been a favorite subject throughout the history of Western art, and women have often been excluded from the art scene, it is stimulating to see how the few female artists of the past depicted themselves.