The Bloomsbury Look

Well produced, extremely interesting text with lots of new information and photographs

I must admit to having a very jaundiced viewpoint when it comes to the Bloomsbury set; having read a number of books on the group (Frances Spalding's biographies of Roger Fry and Vanessa Bell among them) I developed a dislike of their cliquish, elitist manner – most especially Roger Fry and his side-kick Clive Bell, who promoted their own coterie, a certain type of French painting and wilfully ignored any modern art not made in their own sphere of influence or adhering to their own ideas of “taste”.But you needn't take my word for it; many artists - including John Piper - considered Fry`s critical trashing of great swathes of English art and the failure to look beyond their own horizons to be very damaging to the artistic development of British art and perceptions of it. And I can't resist quoting the novelist and historian Andrew Sinclair who said of them "rarely in the field of human endeavour has so much been written about so few who achieved so little".The London-centric viewpoint didn't start with Bloomsbury, but art commentary still suffers from the model set by Bloomsbury attitudes.This book takes a rather more specific angle on Bloomsbury – that of their influence on fashion; the book is in four main chapters and largely looks at the group's self-identity through their own attitudes to dress (and undress); there's a largely self-referential chapter on family photography – how it revealed individual style and how they saw themselves and each other – this leads onto the projection of that style through paintings, then the textile and dress designs, jewellery etc., and the bohemian, avant garde productions of the Omega Workshops.I have no doubt their example had an effect on the well-off followers of fashion in London and the Home Counties who had the money to indulge themselves; Omega stuff was generally expensive and exclusive, catering to a clientèle who could afford to commission clothes, but most of the country wouldn't (and didn't) take much interest in their aesthetics.It's a nicely illustrated book with colour plates of paintings, designs, clothing and with many hitherto unpublished sepia and black and white photos; I expect those who are enthusiastic about the group will be pleased at yet another volume to add to the library; while I have respect for some individual artists and writers who were part of it, I don't buy into the idea of their having a “pivotal role within twentieth-century modernism” as the blurb on the back states - in literature, yes - but not in visual arts.This may seem like “Bloomsbury bashing”, but I do consider their influence to be inflated.If Bloomsbury is your thing, of course, you will beg to differ; this is a nice enough study to leaf through and it does add to the already extensive bibliography on the group, but I couldn't really get excited about it; my personal rating is 3 stars, but it's well-written and presented so I'll up that to 4.

Halfway through this interesting book Virgina Woolf has her hair shingled by Bobo Mayor, and writes to her girlfriend Vita Sackville West to tell her. The provocative, innuendo filled letter tells you everything you need to know about the relationships between these women, and how very important the LOOK of things was to them. The Bloomsbury set were a group of writers, philosophers, poets and artists in the early 20th Century including Virginia Woolf, E. M. Forster and the rather nasty Clive Bell. This book is about the appearance of their clothes,hair homes and art. Its not a coffee table book, it is a clever historical analysis of a very individual group during rapidly changing times. I don't think I like any of them, but they are interesting. Some great illustrations.

Wow this stupendous volume could not have come at a better time ~ with another lockdown due I need all the inspiration to survive and this new book about one of my favourite cultural periods in literary/artistic history is absolutely perfect!!Featuring a wealth of previously unpublished photographs and paintings etc and a cast of characters so familiar to fans of Bloomsbury from John Maynard Keynes, Duncan Grant and the Stephen famille to the Stracheys, Bells and beyond. this is an overwhelming gift to any advocate of this group of talented individuals who defied convention and produced some of the most imaginative and beautiful art works of the early 20th century.This volume is jammed-packed with information, images and inspired and well researched writing and should be enjoyed by any reader interested in an era that will never be repeated.Highly recommended!

This book is something of a hybrid-in its layout, illustrations and binding it looks rather like a coffee table book, but in its text it reads much more like an academic paper. Its subject, as the title implies, is to explore the ways in which the Bloomsbury Group created a visual language to express their political, sexual, artistic and literary beliefs which became overtime a distinctive 'look'. The book is divided into just four chapters each looking at a different aspect of this visual ideology-one concerning the photographs of the Bloomsbury members, a second on their approach to dress and the human body, the third focusses on the output from the Omega Workshops and the last concerns the way in which their work was exhibited and collected. If this sounds like quite a specialized analysis you would be right-this is not in any sense a general history of the Bloomsbury Group and when its literary alumni like Virginia Woolf and Lytton Strachey appear it is only in connection with their visual depiction or how they related to other members of the group-don't expect any discussion of The Waves or Eminent Victorians. This does not mean the book is without considerable interest-the carefully chosen and extensive illustrations feature very rare photographs and many less well known paintings making it a valuable visual sourcebooks for students of Bloomsbury. There is also much to learn about the complex artistic and sexual relationships between members of the group and about how their principles often were compromised by the harsh realities of business-often relying on aristocratic patrons to finance and promote the Omega workshops for instance.Wendy Hitchmough clearly has very specific academic research interests in this area and her explorations of the role of clothes, hairstyles, Victorian notions of female beauty, nudity and colonial attitudes in providing both a context and an exemplar against which the Bloomsbury Group endeavoured to rebel betray the innate seriousness of this volume as do the notes and very useful bibliography. Ultimately perhaps the most revealing discovery of the book is the extent to which 'The Bloomsbury Look' was a very self conscious creation of those who were part of it and how carefully they controlled how their image was constructed and presented.In short this is a specialized volume not a general history of the Bloomsbury Group which will appeal to those with an interest in gender, politics, the creation of visual identity or the seeker of photographs or reproductions of the Bloomsbury artists and their works.