Quentin Bell

<h2 id="early-life">Early life</h2>
<p>Bell was born in London, the second and younger son of the art critic and writer <a href="/facts/Clive_Bell/v7bcNRLK">Clive Bell</a> and the painter and interior designer <a href="/facts/Vanessa_Bell/zfeeM8Mx">Vanessa Bell</a> (née Stephen). He was a nephew of <a href="/facts/Virginia_Woolf/zILeLKW9">Virginia Woolf</a> (née Stephen).<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1"><sup>1</sup></a> He was educated at the Quaker <a href="/facts/Leighton_Park_School/VKFMqUff">Leighton Park School</a> and at <a href="/facts/University_of_Cambridge/0la7aX9o">Cambridge</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a>
</p>

<h2 id="career">Career</h2>
<p>After being educated at <a href="/facts/Leighton_Park_School/VKFMqUff">Leighton Park School</a> and in Paris, Bell became a <a href="/facts/Lecturer/VcD4uwU1">Lecturer</a> in Art History at the Department of <a href="/facts/Fine_Art/eCVxehXE">Fine Art</a>, <a href="/facts/Former_colleges_of_Durham_University/wgVp236f">King's College</a>, <a href="/facts/University_of_Durham/VJHcWdkh">University of Durham</a> from 1952 to 1959, then became the first <a href="/facts/Professor/JNqot4sU">Professor</a> of Fine Art at the <a href="/facts/University_of_Leeds/XxFJF9Qh">University of Leeds</a> from 1959 to 1967. While there he allowed art and english student <a href="/facts/Sue_Crockford/DJJaDFIb">Sue Crockford</a> to study two films even though film was not yet regarded as an art form.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> In 1964 he was appointed <a href="/facts/Slade_Professor_of_Fine_Art/lPDpjc4q">Slade Professor of Fine Art</a> at <a href="/facts/Oxford_University/ExVVQL6V">Oxford University</a> and, in 1965, Ferens Professor of Fine Art at the <a href="/facts/University_of_Hull/p6eAWUtJ">University of Hull</a>. Bell was a Professor of Art History and Theory at the <a href="/facts/University_of_Sussex/A1DtRNal">University of Sussex</a> from 1967 to 1975.
</p><p>He sometimes worked as an artist, principally in ceramics, but for his career he was drawn to academia and to book-writing. Bell's biography of his famous aunt, <i>Virginia Woolf: A Biography</i>, 2 vols (London: Hogarth Press, 1972), won not only the <a href="/facts/James_Tait_Black_Memorial_Prize/V8Ga2FGB">James Tait Black Memorial Prize</a>, but also the <a href="/facts/Duff_Cooper_Prize/M5J1JIDY">Duff Cooper Prize</a> and the <i><a href="/facts/Yorkshire_Post/kSbz4ALl">Yorkshire Post</a></i> Book of the Year Award. He also wrote several books on the <a href="/facts/Bloomsbury_Group/tBSEUWg0">Bloomsbury Group</a> and <a href="/facts/Charleston_Farmhouse/9779GrsF">Charleston Farmhouse</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a>
</p>
<h2 id="family">Family</h2>
<p>He was married to <a href="/facts/Anne_Olivier_Bell/BL8z5VYd">Anne Olivier Bell</a> (née Popham).  They had three children: Julian Bell, an artist and muralist; <a href="/facts/Cressida_Bell/3lKjsb9I">Cressida Bell</a>, a textile designer; and <a href="/facts/Virginia_Nicholson/Vqhyjg5a">Virginia Nicholson</a>,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a> the writer of <i>Charleston: A Bloomsbury House and Garden,</i> <i>Among the Bohemians</i> and <i>Singled Out</i>.
</p><p>Bell had an older brother, the poet <a href="/facts/Julian_Bell/qewLchEc">Julian Bell</a>, who died in the Spanish Civil War in 1937. The writer and artist <a href="/facts/Angelica_Garnett/gVNhQGPz">Angelica Garnett</a> was his half-sister, and <a href="/facts/Amaryllis_Garnett/gbERr9lW">Amaryllis</a> and <a href="/facts/Henrietta_Garnett/VWXIoeSP">Henrietta Garnett</a> were his nieces.
</p>
<h2 id="death">Death</h2>
<p>Quentin Bell died in Sussex, and is buried in the churchyard of St. Peter's Church, <a href="/facts/West_Firle/6yuAJSuK">West Firle</a>, East Sussex.
</p>

<h2 id="bibliography">Bibliography</h2>

<ul><li>Simkin, John (2014). <a href="https://spartacus-educational.com/ARTbellQ.htm">"Quentin Bell"</a>. <i><a href="/facts/Spartacus_Educational/lUr3QnMd">Spartacus Educational</a></i>. Retrieved 9 September 2019.</li></ul>

<h2 id="external-links">External links</h2>

<ul><li><a href="http://library.vicu.utoronto.ca/special/F64qbellfonds.htm">The Quentin Bell Collection at the Victoria University Library at the University of Toronto</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/eminent-charlestonians-with-illustrations-by-quentin-bell-and-text-by-virginia-woolf">"Eminent Charlestonians with illustrations by Quentin Bell and text by Virginia Woolf"</a> via Discovering Literature at the British Library</li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1"><p>"Vanessa and Virginia" Susan Sellers <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:2"><p>"'The Messiah' by Quentin Bell and Virginia Woolf". The British Library. Retrieved 13 May 2019. <a href="https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-messiah-by-quentin-bell-and-virginia-woolf" target="_blank">https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-messiah-by-quentin-bell-and-virginia-woolf</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:3"><p>Simkin 2014. - Simkin, John (2014). "Quentin Bell". Spartacus Educational. Retrieved 9 September 2019. <a href="https://spartacus-educational.com/ARTbellQ.htm" target="_blank">https://spartacus-educational.com/ARTbellQ.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:4"><p>Davin, Anna (13 April 2023), "Crockford, Susan Rosalind [Sue] (1943–2019), film-maker and community activist", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.90000381078, ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8, retrieved 26 August 2023 <a href="978-0-19-861412-8" target="_blank">978-0-19-861412-8</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:5"><p>Essays, Poems and Letters (1938), edited by Quentin Bell. <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:6"><p>"Virginia Nicholson-Biography". virginianicholson.co.uk. Retrieved 12 December 2011. <a href="http://www.virginianicholson.co.uk/biography" target="_blank">http://www.virginianicholson.co.uk/biography</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
</ol>

Quentin Bell open-in-new

Quentin Bell