Art. This item is unavailable.Art

Originally published in 1915. This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies. All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume.

Bell was born in East Shefford, Berkshire, in 1881, the third of four children of William Heward Bell (1849–1927) and Hannah Taylor Cory (1850–1942). He had an elder brother (Cory), an elder sister (Lorna, Mrs Acton), and a younger sister (Dorothy, Mrs Hony). His father was a civil engineer who built his fortune in the family coal mines in Wiltshire in England and Merthyr Tydfil in Wales – "a family which drew its wealth from Welsh mines and expended it on the destruction of wild animals". They lived at Cleeve House, Seend, near Devizes, Wiltshire, which was adorned with Squire Bell's many hunting trophies. Soon after Bell met Roger Fry, he developed his art theory called 'significant form'. Bell and Fry shared a passion for contemporary French art. Bell's book Art (1914) was where his theory was first published. Bell describes this theory as "lines and colours combined in a particular way, certain forms, and relations of forms, that stir our aesthetic emotions". This form can be seen in art created by many members of the Bloomsbury Group, including Interior at Gordon Square by Duncan Grant. Bell was at one point an adherent of absolute pacifism, and during the First World War was a conscientious objector, allowed to perform Work of National Importance by assisting on the farm of Philip Morrell MP, at Garsington Manor. In his 1938 pamphlet War Mongers, he opposed any attempt by Britain to use military force, arguing "the worst tyranny is better than the best war". However, by 1940 Bell was a supporter of the British war effort, calling for a "ceaseless war against Hitler".