A member of The Arts Society
Dame Laura Knight
From Newlyn to Nuremberg
Presented by Bernard Allan
The artist Dame Laura Knight (1877-1970) was the subject of the recent meeting of The Arts Society Alton in the Martin Read Hall at Alton College when visiting speaker Bernard Allen gave an inspiring presentation on the life and work of one of the most distinguished female artists of the early 20th c.
Born Laura Johnson, she came from humble beginnings in Nottingham and attended the local Art School at 13 but after her mother became ill, had to leave to look after her. When she died two years later Laura and her remaining sister had to fend for themselves as their father had previously separated from the family. In 1897 an aunt paid for her to take a holiday in Staithes, a small fishing village on the North Yorkshire coast, and she made it her home for the next ten years. In 1903 she married Harold Knight, a former fellow art student and they thrived in an artists’ colony established in the late Victorian
period, comprising some 25 artists who worked together, painting in the open air, using both oil and watercolour. In Staithes Laura studied the people of the fishing village and the surrounding farms, showing the hardship and poverty of their lives. She made studies, paintings and watercolours, often painting in muted, shadowy tones. Lack of money for expensive materials meant she produced few oil paintings and local children would sit for her, for pennies, giving her the opportunity to develop her figure painting technique.
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In 1907 the Knights moved to Newlyn in Cornwall where artist Stanhope Forbes had established a school for aspiring artists. In contrast to her work in Yorkshire, her Cornish pictures seemed brighter and more cheerful and are regarded as adopting the approach of the Impressionists which had recently crossed the Channel. Alfred Munnings, later known as one of England's finest painters of horses was the star of the local artistic scene in nearby Lamorna, a place Laura described as “Paradise”. From this period Laura is featured on Netflix in in the 2013 film Summer in February, about the Bohemian artists' colony which stars Dominic Cooper as Alfred Munnings, whilst Laura is played by Hattie Morihan and the action is set and shot in Lamorna.”. A seascape of Lamorna completed by her in 1917, and an image of which was displayed to the audience, showed superb brushwork and a wonderful use of colour in her treatment of the sea.
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Although her husband was a conscientious objector during the war, Laura was commissioned by the Canadian Government to paint troops undertaking training in Britain. They moved to London after the war and Harold Knight established himself as a portrait painter, whilst Laura developed an interest in painting theatre, ballet and the circus.
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She was made a Dame in 1921, the first female artist to be recognised, one of the highest honours in the United Kingdom, given to those who have made a significant contribution to their field, usually on a national level.
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She was also honoured by the Royal Academy in 1936, the first woman artist made an Academician since the foundation of the organisation in 1768 and her husband achieved the same accolade the following year.
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During WW2 she was commissioned an as Official War Artist by the British Government and a striking portrait of Ruby Loftus working in a munitions factory was the Royal Academy Picture of the Year in 1943 and was one of several of her works used for publicity posters. She was also commissioned to paint the Nuremburg War Trials in 1946 and the resulting picture can be seen in the Imperial War Museum in London. Whilst her husband died in 1961, Laura continued painting and she was the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the National Gallery in 1963, the first such show of a living female British artist.
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Dame Laura Knight died in 1970 and is buried in St Marys church, Langley, Buckinghamshire and her work is represented in numerous public collections. She wrote two volumes of an autobiography in 1936 and 1965, and a recent biography entitled Laura Knight: A Life by Barbara C Morden appeared in 2021.
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The Chair concluded the meeting with the remark that “Dame Laura Knight has been seen to be a wonderful painter” and thanked the speaker for “talking so knowledgably about her and showing a well-chosen selection of her work demonstrating her wide-ranging skills as a very talented artist”.
Tony Cross