The London Art Fair will showcase art from Charleston House, the East Sussex former home of the Bloomsbury Group artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, from 17-24 January. The exhibition will feature pieces from private collections that have never been on display to the public before.
The exhibition marks the launch of Charleston’s 50 for 50 initiative. The gallery is hoping to source 50 of the Bloomsbury Group’s most significant works still in private collections to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2030.
The works on display at the London Art Fair will include The Cloak by Vanessa Bell, paintings of the farm buildings at Charleston by Duncan Grant, and a recently restored study of Mansion House by the French painter Simon Bussy.
Charleston director Nathaniel Hepburn said: “We have over 10,000 works in our collection already but they’re predominately studio ephemera.
"What we’re looking for are some of the most important museum-quality works that will create an internationally significant Bloomsbury collection, which collectors might have on their walls and might have been passed down a number of generations but they’re thinking that one day would be great to return to Charleston.
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“For the wider public, the London Art Fair is a great opportunity to see a dozen works that are in private collections that they would otherwise not be able to see.”
The display will spotlight Vanessa Bell’s rare 1934 portrait of her sister Virginia Woolf at home in Tavistock Square. The painting was briefly exhibited in Paris in 1934, then held in a private collection until it was recently bequeathed to Charleston.
A Roger Fry portrait of his fellow Bloomsbury author EM Forster will also be on show, alongside a variety of ceramics and furnishings from Fry’s design group Omega Workshops.
The London Art Fair partners with a regional museum each year and is working with Charleston for 2024.
Sarah Monk, the director of the London Art Fair, said: “Charleston has been high on the wish list to bring to the fair. As it was a place for celebrating art and ideas, there is a huge synergy with what we also look to create for our own visitors to the fair.
“The museum partnership plays a crucial role in encouraging collectors and visitors to think about the key part they can play in supporting galleries through such gifts and loans, to continue to build their collections and ultimately drive new audiences and patronage to ensure they continue to survive and thrive.”
The London Art Fair will run from 17-21 January 2024 at the Business Design Centre, Islington.