The Bloomsbury Group Research Guide: Core Members

Arthur Clive Heward Bell was an art critic, particularly associated with art formalism. He developed the aesthetic theory called significant form, which he coined in 1914, describing the idea that the significance of a picture comes from the piece's emotion and expression and not from how it was created, "even if largely or completely divorced from recognizable reality" (Tate Gallery).

Vanessa Bell was a painter and interior designer. Her artistry was encouraged by Post-Impressionist exhibitions organized by Roger Fry. Along with Clive Bell, Duncan Grant, and David Garnett, she settled at Charleston in East Sussex. There, Bell painted and worked on commissions for the Omega Workshop, established by Fry. Her first solo exhibition took place in 1916.

Carrington was a painter and artist active during the interwar years, and has been described as "the most neglected serious painter of her time" (Pallant House Gallery). She designed woodcuts and worked for the Omega Workshop and the Hogarth Press. As a painter, she has been linked to surrealism.

Forster was a writer, considered one of the most successful English novelists of the Edwardian era. He also wrote short stories, essays, literary criticism, as well as plays, a libretto, and a film script. He was also associated with the Cambridge Apostles.

An older member of the Bloomsbury, Fry was a painter and critic, well-known for his advocacy of French Post-Impressionism and raising public awareness of modern art in Britain. He founded the Omega Workshop to provide an outlet for the Bloomsbury ethos.

Garnett was a publisher and writer. He gained literary recognition for his book Lady into Fox and co-founded the Nonesuch Press, both in 1922. He married Angelica Bell, daughter of Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell.

Grant was a British painter who was also familiar with the avant-garde circles in Paris. Among the Bloomsbury Group, he has been romantically linked with David Garnett, his cousin Lytton Strachey, John Maynard Keynes, and Vanessa Bell.

Keynes was an economist and philosopher whose ideas were fundamental in reshaping macroeconomic and governmental economic policies, producing the school of thought known as Keynesian economics. He was also associated with the Cambridge Apostles.

MacCarthy was a writer, literary critic, and journalist. Throughout his career, he wrote criticism for magazines, newspapers, periodicals, and literary journals. He was also associated with the Cambridge Apostles.

Strachey was a writer and critic, best known for his works of biography. Through his letters, he had been romantically linked with Duncan Grant (his cousin), Dora Carrington, and Ralph Patridge (Carrington's husband). He was also associated with the Cambridge Apostles.

Woolf was a political theorist, author, and publisher. He co-founded the Hogarth Press in 1917 with his wife, Virginia Woolf. As a politician, he was a member of the Labour Party and the Fabian Society. He was also associated with the Cambridge Apostles.

Woolf was a fiction writer and essayist, noted for her use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. She co-founded the Hogarth Press in 1917 with her husband, Leonard Woolf.

• On Craftmanship: The Only Surviving Recording of Virginia Woolf’s Voice, 1937, from The Marginalian

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For a profile-oriented guide, visit Gumberg Library's Virginia Woolf Research Guide.