[Vwoolf] Iris beam

Mon Apr 21 10:19:29 EDT 2025

I found these old posts from VW lists server, which to me were so interesting and enlightening. However, I would like to add something as well, at the very bottom of the threads presented here which start off as connected to the Jigsaw Puzzle where Woolf is depicted blond. https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://eeboo.com/blogs/puzzles/5-puzzles-for-book-lovers__;!!KGKeukY!ymeUxDRsZXDc2s2DHgaBbft5_w0LPgaGpvfI0sw5puDXesmJ295PFGN9Hrp_0aAqqZpwsao5mRLLMrdDCwBsUaANTiB4Fg3-$ 

On 28 October 2022, Vara Neverow asked:

'Just curious--I wonder why Woolf is depicted as blonde in the jigsaw puzzle. '

Vara

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From: Marielle O'Neill (1806529) PHD <M.ONeill at leedstrinity.ac.uk<https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf >> Sent: Friday, October 28, 2022 8:54:43 AM To: Neverow, Vara S. <neverowv1 at southernct.edu<https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf >>; Ellen Moody <ellen.moody at gmail.com<https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf >>; Laura Cernat <cernat.laura at kuleuven.be<https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf >> Cc: VWOOLF Listserv <vwoolf at lists.service.ohio-state.edu<https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf >>; vwoolf at lists<https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf > <vwoolf at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu<https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf >> Subject: RE: [Vwoolf] Jigsaw puzzle w/ Virginia Woolf Virginia Woolf is depicted as blonde in the painting by Ray Strachey dating from the 1920s held in the National Portrait Gallery: https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw36771/Virginia-Woolf__;!!KGKeukY!xNA07-piTrADDKJdiiPB-WnAEwg_j6wUXQnCVG0hQZ1owd2sunsV0YZ9EmKbKSI6VkFCPt4UAwarOvgXiTR1uzzJbLIX9vJ2TQ$

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From: Neverow, Vara S. via Vwoolf
Sent: Friday, October 28, 2022 2:37 PM
To: Marielle O'Neill (1806529) PHD ; EllenMoody ; Laura Cernat
Cc: VWOOLF Listserv ; vwoolf at lists<https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf >
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] Jigsaw puzzle w/ Virginia Woolf

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Good to know about Ray Strachey's painting.

Guessing the colors in black and white photography is always a gamble—dark blonde and pale brown hair shades can be misinterpreted as can red, dark brown and black.

Several paintings by Vanessa Bell show Virginia's hair as rather dark brown...

https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw08084/Virginia-Woolf__;!!KGKeukY!xNA07-piTrADDKJdiiPB-WnAEwg_j6wUXQnCVG0hQZ1owd2sunsV0YZ9EmKbKSI6VkFCPt4UAwarOvgXiTR1uzzJbLK48sepgA$

https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/virginia-woolf-making-waves-at-the-national-portrait-gallery-9603314.html__;!!KGKeukY!xNA07-piTrADDKJdiiPB-WnAEwg_j6wUXQnCVG0hQZ1owd2sunsV0YZ9EmKbKSI6VkFCPt4UAwarOvgXiTR1uzzJbLL_6wZjPg$

https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://arthive.com/artists/61917*Vanessa_Bell/works/475415*Portrait_Of_Virginia_Woolf__;fn4!!KGKeukY!xNA07-piTrADDKJdiiPB-WnAEwg_j6wUXQnCVG0hQZ1owd2sunsV0YZ9EmKbKSI6VkFCPt4UAwarOvgXiTR1uzzJbLId9nb4Kg$

I wonder whether Woolf had dyed or lightened her hair around the time when Ray Strachey did the painting. 

Paula Maggio had posted a blog about the blonde hair in the jigsaw puzzle in 2020:
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://bloggingwoolf.org/2020/09/24/a-puzzling-question-why-is-woolf-depicted-as-a-blue-eyed-blonde/amp/__;!!KGKeukY!xNA07-piTrADDKJdiiPB-WnAEwg_j6wUXQnCVG0hQZ1owd2sunsV0YZ9EmKbKSI6VkFCPt4UAwarOvgXiTR1uzzJbLLzpv7nGA$  . (It's not clear whether the artist ever responded to the query.)

Also, on a related thread, I have a vague memory that someone claimed Woolf's eyes were green. Does anyone recall this? I can't find a link to anything about it right now.

Vara

Vara Neverow
(she/her/hers)
Professor, English Department and Women’s and Gender Studies Program
Managing Editor, Virginia Woolf Miscellany
Southern Connecticut State University
New Haven, CT 06515

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Stuart N. Clarke  sent this:

http://lists.osu.edu/pipermail/vwoolf/attachments/20221028/7896d718/attachment-0001.png 

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>From Marielle O'Neill,

'Thanks for finding the reference, Stuart. Vanessa portrays VW as having brown/hazel eyes so perhaps her eyes were a mutable colour.

See:
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/768417__;!!KGKeukY!zrxEKBUM80rP3gY-TmlTf3yx2pnANRDafwH2-J1Y5gEBsAbNioqb4EQ_kTR4p7qnZKKvDBDAPROgzeKav4B5tDTYk2tQFQ$

Warm wishes,
Marielle

Ms Marielle O’Neill
Postgraduate Researcher, Leeds Trinity University
Executive Council Member, Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain
M.ONeill at leedstrinity.ac.uk<https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf >
https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.virginiawoolfsociety.org.uk/events/__;!!KGKeukY!zrxEKBUM80rP3gY-TmlTf3yx2pnANRDafwH2-J1Y5gEBsAbNioqb4EQ_kTR4p7qnZKKvDBDAPROgzeKav4B5tDQ69VBM0g$
She/Her'

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>From Sarah M. Hall:

'Thanks, Stuart, I found a similar line in Angelica's contribution to Recollections of Virginia Woolf, ed. Joan Russell Noble (Peter Owen, 1972):

"her bladed nose, like the breastbone of a bird or the wing of a bat, surmounted by deeply hooded melancholy grey-green eyes. She had the worn beauty of a hare's paw." (p. 84)

It made me remember that as a child I used to notice the eye colour of everyone I met; now, almost never. The child's world is in close-up, I suppose, whereas adults don't want to encroach on personal space, or gaze deeply into the eyes of a near-stranger.

I quite like the idea that we are unsure what VW looked like in terms of hair and eye colour. We all know about her youthful beauty, but this dearth of basic physical information suggests that people who knew her found her mind, conversation and behaviour much more memorable and noteworthy. '

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>From me:

I've noticed that the painting of the Ray Strachey not only dates from the 1920's , but actually it says 'late 1920s'.
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw36771/Virginia-Woolf__;!!KGKeukY!ymeUxDRsZXDc2s2DHgaBbft5_w0LPgaGpvfI0sw5puDXesmJ295PFGN9Hrp_0aAqqZpwsao5mRLLMrdDCwBsUaANTkQFVLgS$ 

I've recently read "A Boy at the Hogarth Press", which is about Richard Kennedy, who as a 16 years old (in 1928) becomes an apprentice at Hogarth Press. In that book, he speaks of Woolf's gray hair.  So it could be that in this photo Woolf's hair is actually gray.
[https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://collectionimages.npg.org.uk/std/mw36771/Virginia-Woolf.jpg__;!!KGKeukY!ymeUxDRsZXDc2s2DHgaBbft5_w0LPgaGpvfI0sw5puDXesmJ295PFGN9Hrp_0aAqqZpwsao5mRLLMrdDCwBsUaANTll7_XQP$ ]<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw36771/Virginia-Woolf__;!!KGKeukY!ymeUxDRsZXDc2s2DHgaBbft5_w0LPgaGpvfI0sw5puDXesmJ295PFGN9Hrp_0aAqqZpwsao5mRLLMrdDCwBsUaANTkQFVLgS$ >
NPG D256; Virginia Woolf - Portrait - National Portrait Gallery<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw36771/Virginia-Woolf__;!!KGKeukY!ymeUxDRsZXDc2s2DHgaBbft5_w0LPgaGpvfI0sw5puDXesmJ295PFGN9Hrp_0aAqqZpwsao5mRLLMrdDCwBsUaANTkQFVLgS$ >
Virginia Woolf. by Ray Strachey oil on board, late 1920s 22 in. x 16 in. (559 mm x 406 mm) Given by Barbara Strachey (Hultin, later Halpern), 1999
https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.npg.org.uk__;!!KGKeukY!ymeUxDRsZXDc2s2DHgaBbft5_w0LPgaGpvfI0sw5puDXesmJ295PFGN9Hrp_0aAqqZpwsao5mRLLMrdDCwBsUaANTlbwyvi-$ 

Linked to the colours of Virginia's eyes, I'd also like to add the title of Clive Bell's poem,  “Yellow & Green” (CB gave this poem to Virginia on her birthday in 1908).

Words such as "Eyes" and "Iris beam" are part of this poem.

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