She depicts her sister, a person as close to her as anyone in the world, without a face. Instead, Bell captures something essential in her, a pose or way of being in the world as distinctive as her facial features. Virginia Woolf was noted among friends and family for the rapid mobility of her facial expressions—impossible to capture in paint or by camera—and also her violent dislike of posing for portraits of any kind. Bell understood her, body and soul. She ignored mere features, capturing her sister’s essence instead.
