Laura Knight

by Alice Strickland

Laura Knight (1877–1970) was an English Realist painter who documented life and culture in Britain during the first half of the twentieth century.

Educated at a time when studying life-drawing was the preserve of male artists, Knight railed against social restrictions of the day and established her own life studio. She was a consummate documentarist and her studies of the ballet as well as her government-commissioned depictions of women’s wartime labour during the First World War are some of the this artist's most enduring works.

The first female artist to be elected a full Royal Academician, and with a career that spanned seven decades, Knight was one of the most important artists of her day. Today her work features in public collections across the UK and around the world, including Tate, the National Portrait Gallery and the Imperial War Museums, London.

Genres: Nonfiction

64 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2019

Reviews

[ReadingwhileWalking · Rating 4 out of 5]

Born in Derbyshire in 1877, Laura Knight entered the Nottingham School of Art aged just 13. In 1936, she became the first female Royal Academician (at London's Royal Academy) since Angelika Kauffmann in the late 1700s. Not interested in 'isms', her work was later criticised for its lack of formal innovation; but it is her subject matter that presents the true claim to originality. Her 'insistent realism,' says Alison Strickland, was, employed to highlight 'people's working lives'. The first of these 'workers' is Knight herself in a life-sized 1913 self-portrait, depicting the artist painting a female nude. (This may have been an ironic comment on her art studies, when she, as a female student, was not allowed to depict live nudes ). This tiny volume goes on to show Knight's paintings of ballet dancers, circus performers, nomadic 'gypsies'; and, most strikingly, women workers during WW2.
Among the most remarkable pieces are an oil painting depicting female workers repairing a giant silver barrage balloon, used to protect Sheffield steel factories. There is such drama in this epic scene, in which wrinkles in the strewn-out silver fabric are as intricate as the surface of a choppy sea.
Other stand-outs include the 1917 painting of two modern-looking women, with knee-length skirts and bobbed hair, on the Cornish cliffs with their pet spaniel, looking out upon a surprisingly (for 1917) calm sea. It is reminiscent of the poet HD among the Cornish wildflowers, in another scene of hope and peace, at the end of her WW1 auto-fictional novel, Bid Me to Live.
Strickland's short text is functional rather than poetic, describing the main events in Knight's career. I'd have liked to know more about Laura Knight the person, her family, her intimate life, her character. But for now, the paintings will have to do.

[Jeff Howells · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short pen picture of one of the 20th Century’s great female painters - Laura Knight. It’s a good primer to understand her life and work (she was the first woman to be voted a Royal Academician). She started her career in a time when women weren’t allowed in to life classes to draw nudes. She went on to paint studies of the ballet, the circus, the traveller community and also became a war artist. This is one of a series of books to celebrate women artists.

[Bethany Andrews · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not an artist but this series of books has been enlightening! This has been my favourite so far as it’s most in keeping with the art I like ☺️

[Marie-Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

The perfect introduction to this wonderful artist.

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short little introduction to the artist's life. Part of the series, Modern Women Artists, published by Eiderdown Books.