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Inside Bloomsbury at Tate Britain
This autumn, Tate Britain celebrates the five-decade creative partnership of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, two of the most influential British artists of the 20th Century. For the first time, the studio they shared until 1939 will leave Charleston, their East Sussex home, and be temporarily relocated to Tate Britain while the house undergoes conservation work.
Limited edition rugs from original Omega Workshops artworks, produced by CF Editions, available now through the Tate Shop. Each purchase also supports the gallery, and are kept in stock for immediate purchase.
At the forefront of avant-garde art in Britain, Bell and Grant were key members of the Bloomsbury Group, a collective of artists, writers and intellectuals who introduced modernist ideas to a somewhat scandalised society. Few creative partnerships have so thoroughly dissolved the line between art and life. Theirs began, simply, with an invitation to tea: Bell’s 1909 letter to Grant, suggesting they drop formalities and use first names, set in motion a lifelong bond. It was never conventional. Bell, who was married to the art critic Clive Bell, shared a home with Grant, who was gay, for over five decades, and together they raised a daughter, Angelica.
The exhibition brings together more than 300 works, the first major showing devoted to the pair, from early Post-Impressionist and abstract paintings to late naturalistic self-portraits, landscapes and still lifes. Alongside the paintings are furniture, ceramics and textiles adorned with their modernist designs.
Central to this story are the Omega Workshops, the design enterprise established in 1913 by the painter, critic and art historian Roger Fry, with Bell and Grant as directors. With a communal ethos, Omega Workshops blurred the distinction between fine and decorative art, and its output was marked with the Greek letter omega rather than attributed to a single artist.
In addition to the CF Editions rugs, other original Omega Workshops designs are available as made-to-order Christopher Farr rugs.
12 November 2026 – 11 April 2027
Vanessa Bell & Duncan Grant: Inside Bloomsbury
Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG
FULL IMAGE CREDITS:
Hero image:
LHS: Vanessa Bell Self Portrait c.1915 Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund B1982.16.2. © 2026 Estate of Vanessa Bell. All rights reserved, DACS
RHS: Duncan Grant Self-Portrait [of Duncan Grant] c.1920 (detail) Private Collection © 2026 Estate of Duncan Grant. All rights reserved, DACS
Reflections Omega, rug produced by CF Editions, hand tufted, handspun wool. Attributed or Duncan Grant or Frederick Etchells. 1913-15, The Courtuald Gallery, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust). Given by Pamela Diamand, 1958
LHS: Duncan Grant The Mantelpiece 1914. © 2026 Estate of Duncan Grant. All rights reserved, DACS. Photo © Tate (Reece Straw)
RHS: Vanessa Bell Still Life on Corner of a Mantelpiece 1914. © 2026 Estate of Vanessa Bell. All rights reserved, DACS
Omega Workshops Rug, produced by CF Editions, hand tufted, hand spun wool. Attributed to Duncan Grant or Frederick Etchells 1913-15 The Courtauld Gallery, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust) Given by Pamela Diamand, 1958. Photography Christopher Horwood