Vanessa Bell & Duncan Grant: Inside Fitzrovia

This week Vanessa Bell & Duncan Grant: Inside Bloomsbury opens at Tate Britain, the first major exhibition to chart the relationship and artistic trajectory of two of the most influential British artists of the 20th Century. 

Featuring over 300 works, the exhibition explores the extraordinary five-decade creative partnership between Vanessa Bell (1879–1961) and Duncan Grant (1885–1978), whose radical experimentation and unconventional approach to life reshaped art, literature, and societal thought in Britain.

Both Bell and Grant were core members of the 'Bloomsbury Group', a collective of artists, writers, and intellectuals – including Clive Bell, Leonard Woolf, Lytton Strachey, E. M. Forster, John Maynard Keynes, and Roger Fry – who regularly met to discuss progressive ideas about art, literature and culture. 

These meetings became known as 'Thursday evenings', and began in or around 1905 at 46 Gordon Square, the home of Vanessa, her brothers Thoby and Adrian Stephen and sister Virginia Woolf, the celebrated twentieth-century writer. In 1907, when Vanessa married art critic Clive Bell, Virginia and Adrian moved to 29 Fitzroy Square, Fitzrovia and began to host Thursday evenings there.

In November 1909, Duncan Grant moved to 21 Fitzroy Square and soon became a regular at the Thursday evening gatherings. He grew close to the group and, from then on, he and Vanessa would start to spend more time together. It was a letter from Vanessa in 1909, inviting him to tea and proposing they address each other by their first names that marked the beginning of their enduring artistic relationship: "Dear Duncan, May I call you so & will you call me Vanessa? It seems rather absurd to begin with 'Dear Mr. Grant'."

Presenting the duo's works side-by-side, the exhibition at Tate Britain charts the course of their relationship and the evolution of their approach to artmaking, from experiments with bold colour to simplified shapes and rhythmic lines. Theirs was a shared visual language, with both artists often working from the same subject; for example, the mantelpiece at 46 Gordon Square.

Although the Omega Workshops closed in 1919; the following year, in 1920, Vanessa and Duncan acquired a joint London studio at 8 Fitzroy Street, working there until the building was destroyed by a bomb in 1940.

Throughout their creative partnership, Fitzrovia, alongside Bloomsbury, were neighbourhoods central to the artists' creative practice. Unfortunately, much of Vanessa's early work, made in the studio at 8 Fitzroy Street, was destroyed with the building in 1940. 

The forthcoming exhibition at Tate Britain is an opportunity to chart Vanessa and Duncan's relationship and artistic trajectory from beginning to end, and discover over 300 works made throughout their lifetimes.

In Fitzrovia, the Charlotte Street Hotel holds a unique collection of work by the Bloomsbury Group, including works by Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. A vibrant mural by Alexander Hollweg, inspired by the salons and gatherings of the the group, adorns the walls of Oscar, their lively European brasserie.

Browse the art collection, admire the mural, and then enjoy a Bloomsbury-inspired cocktail, including 'Grant's Palette', featuring gin, elderflower, and lemon verbena, and 'Cafe Bell', featuring tequila, walnut orgeat, and honey aperitif.

1907: Virginia and Adrian Stephen move to 29 Fitzroy Square and begin hosting 'Thursday Evenings' there
1909: Duncan Grant moves to 21 Fitzroy Square
1913: Roger Fry opens the Omega Workshops at 33 Fitzroy Square. Bell and Grant are appointed directors
1920: Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant acquire a joint London studio at 8 Fitzroy Street
1940: The Fitzroy Street studio, including a vast collection of Bell's early work, is destroyed by a Blitz incendiary bomb

Vanessa Bell & Duncan Grant: Inside Bloomsbury runs from 12 November 2026 – 11 April 2027 at Tate Britain, Millbank, SW1P 4RG.