[Vwoolf] Virginia in Paris 1904

[Stuart N. Clarke]

“There is an odd, distressing story of her behaviour a few days before they came back to England.   The Stephens had been taken by Clive Bell to visit Rodin’s studio.  Rodin told them they could touch anything except the sculptures which were under wraps.  Virginia immediately started to unwrap one of the unfinished works.  The English painter Gerald Kelly, who witnessed the scene, said that Rodin slapped her.”
(H. Lee, p. 199; info. from Mrs Valerie Eliot, p. 793 n111)

This does not seem unlikely, as VW was on the verge of a breakdown.

However, Clive Bell wrote: “I got into a scrape with him [Rodin] later for touching a lay-figure in his studio.  He paid me out too; for when I went with Thoby Stephen ...”
(“Old Friends”, p. 150)

The coincidence makes me feel uncomfortable about the truth of the VW anecdote.

Stuart
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