Talk:Vanessa Bell

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• cough* is it best to describe Duncan Grant as homosexual when he's "carrying on" with Vanessa Bell? wouldn't bisexual be a more accurate description?

[edit] Sexuality of Duncan Grant and David Garnett

Duncan Grant was primarily homosexual. According to Frances Spaulding's biography and other sources, he had many male lovers both before and after his liaison with Vanessa Bell. She, however, was his only known female lover, and their sexual relationship lasted only a short period of time. It seems that its primary purpose was to conceive a child together (whom Vanessa hoped would be a boy who would inherit his father's talent.) No doubt she would have liked their relationship to remain physically intimate, but by all accounts that ended with Angelica's birth. Many gay men have had similar temporary liaisons with women but still identify as gay, not bisexual. Duncan's letters as quoted by Spaulding seem to show his self-image in this light.

David Garnett, by contrast, was primarily heterosexual with a few homosexual affairs in his youth. He could, I suppose, be called bisexual. Spaulding quotes Duncan Grant as complaining that Bunny "wasn't a bugger" during their affair. After the liaison with Grant ended, Garnett married twice and had six children. Haddison 02:24, 26 July 2006 (UTC)