This art is more than a visual piece — it’s a glowing tribute to one of the most iconic sapphic love stories of the 20th century. Inspired by the layered and luminous relationship between Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West, this surreal artwork weaves together the threads of love, creativity, and rebellion.
Who Were Vita and Virginia?
Virginia Woolf was one of the most influential modernist writers in English literature — known for Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and her pioneering stream-of-consciousness style. She was married to Leonard Woolf, but her emotional and creative world expanded dramatically when she met Vita Sackville-West in 1922.
Vita, a successful poet and novelist in her own right, was charismatic, aristocratic, and openly bisexual. Married to diplomat Harold Nicolson (in what was a famously open marriage), she brought a passionate and earthy energy into Virginia’s more introspective, fragile life.
Their relationship — emotional, romantic, intellectual — is now one of the most documented queer love stories in literary history.
How Did Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West Meet?
Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West first crossed paths in December 1922 at a dinner party hosted by Virginia’s brother-in-law. At the time, Virginia was already an established modernist writer in London’s Bloomsbury circle, known for her intellect and introspection. Vita, by contrast, was a charismatic, aristocratic novelist and poet — openly bisexual, married to diplomat Harold Nicolson in what was famously a non-monogamous marriage.
Despite their contrasting temperaments — Virginia, shy and cerebral; Vita, bold and worldly — the attraction between them was undeniable. Virginia once wrote that Vita “shines in the grocer’s shop in Sevenoaks,” suggesting that even the mundane was illuminated by her presence. Their relationship began with flirtation and quickly deepened into a passionate emotional and intellectual bond.
A Love Etched in Letters
Over the course of nearly two decades, Virginia and Vita exchanged hundreds of letters, some of the most vivid and heartfelt love correspondence in literary history. Their letters reveal a relationship that was both tender and complex — often romantic, sometimes sexual, always deeply rooted in mutual admiration and affection.
In a 1927 letter, Vita wrote:
“I am reduced to a thing that wants Virginia. I composed a beautiful letter to you in the sleepless nightmare hours of the night, and it has all gone: I just miss you.”
Virginia, for her part, found both inspiration and escape in Vita’s presence. Their relationship sparked one of Woolf’s most famous novels, Orlando (1928) — a playful, genre-defying love letter to Vita, in which the protagonist changes gender and lives for centuries. Woolf called it “a biography beginning in the year 1500 and continuing to the present day,” and it remains one of the earliest and boldest queer literary works of the 20th century.
In my artwork, you see two mirrored faces — echoing the duality and mirroring often explored in Woolf’s writing.
The glowing vines, flowers, and lunar symbols hint at creative fertility, femininity, and the psychic intertwining of these two women’s inner worlds.
Crafted in neon greens and deep night blues, the composition speaks of both light and shadow — much like their relationship: part reality, part dream.
Shop the Portrait → Sapphic Wall Art Print – Vita & Virginia
