Watch a reading of a play based on Vanessa Bell painting

“Mrs. Dalloway’s Party” (1920) by Vanessa Bell

In 1920 Virginia Woolf’s sister Vanessa Bell painted “Mrs Dalloway’s Party,” a painting that quickly became shrouded in mystery.

Exhibited briefly in 1922, the highly praised painting disappeared until British art dealer Anthony d’Offay offered it in 1983 from the estate of Virginia Woolf. It then vanished for more than 60 years until it turned up in a sale of items from Woolf’s estate.

Questions

Questions about the painting are many. If it was a gift to Virginia, why did she hide it away? Vanessa Bell paintings were usually still lives, but this one clearly depicts a narrative. What is the story she wanted to show?  Are the figures real people? If so who are they?

The preliminary title of Virginia Woolf’s most famous novel, Mrs Dalloway, published five years later, was The Party, so was there a connection between painting and novel?

Howard Ginsberg has offered an intriguing explanation for these unanswered questions in his latest play, “The Mysterious Gift to Virginia Woolf.”

Watch the free recording of an online reading of this play on YouTube.

More about the painting

For more background on the painting, listen to a 2023 27-minute podcast “Mrs. Dalloway’s Party,” that features Dr. Karina Jakubowicz. In it, she speaks with Ginsberg, the painting’s owner.

She also interviews the bestselling author of Bloomsbury Pie: The Making of the Bloomsbury Room, Regina Marler, as they discuss paintings and parties in 1920s Bloomsbury.

Charleston raising funds for early Duncan Grant painting

The Charleston Trust has raised £20,000 of the £60,000 it needs to help save “Lessons in the Orchard,” from sale at auction.

“Lessons in the Orchard” (1917) by Duncan Grant. (C) The Charleston Trust

Duncan Grant’s 1917 painting is considered one of the most important paintings of early life at Charleston, as  Grant painted it the summer after he and Vanessa Bell first arrived at the Sussex home in 1916. It was also one of Vanessa Bell’s favorite paintings and has hung by her bedside since that time.

According to Charleston, “The much loved painting serves as a poignant reflection of Grant’s experiences as a conscientious objector during the First World War, depicting a scene of domestic tranquillity amidst the chaos of the era. The painting captures a different kind of family structure, offering a lens into themes of social privilege and chosen kinship that have always been present here at Charleston.”

The family who has loaned Charleston the painting since the 1980s has given Charleston the opportunity to secure its permanent place within its collection.

With the support of the Trustees of the ArtFund, Charleston has secured a grant of £40,000 towards the purchase price. However, it must raise a further £60,000 to ensure that “Lessons in the Orchard” remains in the care of Charleston’s collections team and is returned to public display for generations to enjoy.

Get more details or donate to the Lessons in the Orchard campaign.

Talk reveals what we don’t know about Dreadnought hoax

Is everything we think we know about the Dreadnought hoax wrong? Danell Jones says it is.

Jones, the author of Virginia Woolf, Race and the Dreadnought Hoax (2023) will give an illustrated online talk on “Everything You Think You Know about the Dreadnought Hoax Is Wrong.” Marielle O’Neill will lead the Q&A that follows.

Event details

What: Talk on “Everything You Think You Know about the Dreadnought Hoax Is Wrong“
Date: Wednesday, May 15
Time: 5:30 p.m. BST
Where: Online
Cost: £6
Sponsor: Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain
Audience: VWSGB members only. Not a member? Join here.
For more information: Contact onlinevwsgb@gmail.com

About the book — and the talk

Journalists, memoirists and others have been getting the 1910 Dreadnought hoax wrong for more than a century. Even Virginia Woolf’s 1940 talk about the hoax is rife with inaccuracies, exaggerations and misrepresentations.

The Girl Prince, published by Hurst, takes a deep dive into the famous prank, exploring the often-overlooked diversity of Virginia Woolf’s world and setting the record straight on a practical joke that has been misunderstood for 100 years.

About the author

Danell Jones is a writer and scholar with a PhD in literature from Columbia University. She is the author of The Virginia Woolf Writers Workshop; the poetry collection Desert Elegy; and An African in Imperial London: The Indomitable Life of A.B.C. Merriman-Labor, which won the High Plains Book Award for Nonfiction.

 

Woolf Salon 27: “VW Miscellany at 100” is May 10

Join Woolf Salon No. 27: “Virginia Woolf Miscellany at 100″ on Zoom on Friday, May 10, from 2-4 p.m. EDT (New York).

The Miscellany is the semi-annual publication of the International Virginia Woolf Society.

The session will include a rich discussion (and celebration) of the Virginia Woolf Miscellany, which celebrated the major benchmark of its 100th issue last year. The discussion will include future and past editors of the publication, along with readers and newcomers.

The details

Event: Woolf Salon No. 27: “Virginia Woolf Miscellany at 100″
Hosts: Vara Neverow and Salon Conspirators
Date: Friday, May 10
Time: 2–4 p.m. EDT (New York) / 11 a.m.–1 p.m. PDT (Los Angeles) / 3–5 p.m. Brasilia / 7–9 p.m. BST (London) / 8–10 p.m. CEST (Paris) / 9 –11 p.m. Ankara / Sat 3–5 a.m. JST (Tokyo) / Sat 4 –6 a.m. AEST (Sydney)
Where: On Zoom
How: Contact woolfsalonproject@gmail.com to sign up for the email list and receive the Zoom link.

The readings

Organizers ask that folks read through issues 1 and 5 of the VWM, peruse the online archive as time allows, and come in with a favorite issue or cluster that has been meaningful to them, their scholarship, or their teaching. (Issue 101 is now available online.)

Homework: Read Issue 1 and Issue 5 and peruse the online archive as you have time.

We look forward to seeing many of you on the 10th and to celebrating the rich history of the VWM!

Future Salon planned

• Friday, July 26, at 2 p.m. ET – Woolf Salon No. 28: TBA

The last Woolf Salon, Woolf Salon No. 26: Faces and Voices, was held Feb. 23.

Background on the Salon

The Salon Conspirators — Benjamin Hagen, Shilo McGiff, Amy Smith, and Drew Shannon — began the Woolf Salon Project in July 2020 to provide opportunities for conversation and conviviality among Woolf-interested scholars, students, and common readers during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

Woolf and Childhood @LitCamb summer course

Woolf and Childhood is the theme for Literature Cambridge’s 2024 summer course, which runs twice: once live online and once in person at Cambridge University.

The course will explore the theme of childhood in Woolf’s fiction, and her own experience of childhood. How do her memories of childhood inform her fiction; and how does she think about children and childhood in her novels? Participants will study one work per day:

• A Sketch of the Past (1939)
  

  Godrevy Lighthouse, St. Ives, Cornwall

• Jacob’s Room (1922)
• To the Lighthouse (1927)
• The Waves (1931)
• The Years (1937)

Live online and in person

Live online: The live online course runs 8-12 July for five days of intensive lectures, tutorials, talks, and more.

In person: The in person course will take place 4-9 August, with five days’ intensive study in person in Cambridge. There will be lectures, tutorials, talks, plus visits to places of interest in Cambridge, such as the Wren Library at Trinity College. As a sidenote, Woolf’s brothers studied at Trinity and she visited the college many times as a teenager and young adult.

The in person course will include a special performance of the play Vita and Virginia, a talk and recital of the music Woolf loved as a child and young adult, and more.

Accommodation is booked separately from the course. Literature Cambridge has reserved rooms at Robinson College, next to Clare Hall, the teaching venue. Bookings for Robinson are open. See details on Terms and Conditions for the link to Robinson and the code you need to use.

Attendees can also book a hotel, Air BNB or other accommodation. Please note that accommodation fills very quickly in Cambridge; do book as early as you can.

The in person course is filling up, so those interested are urged to sign up soon.

For more information

Contact info@literaturecambridge.co.uk with any questions.

Wren Library at Trinity College