Alice Spawls reviews Vanessa Bell: 1879-1941 at Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, on view through June 4, 2017.

Spawls writes: “Despite the obvious influence of Matisse on her work, the artist Bell often seems closest to in spirit is Bonnard. There is an affinity in their domestic playfulness, in the shimmer of marks and diffusive pinks and yellows. At times she seems as interested as he was in the way patterns of colour can work across a scene, destabilising it through decoration.”