A tangential header to be sure, but Laura Knight was eventually titled, which resulted in her being Dame Knight.
Before that, she was an painter. An interesting and significant figure in the world of British art in the early twentieth century, she was catholic in her taste of subjects. The world of the theatre makes its presence known in her work, through the music hall performers such as those shown in Motley (above), as well as many commedia dell'arte performers and ballet dancers. She also painted sunlit landscapes and outdoor genre scenes. Later in her career she created journalistic paintings like her depiction of the Nuremberg trials.
Knight brought a nice balance of composition and looseness to her work. She also had a great eye for light.
2 comments:
Looking at her incredible body of work you'd never guess that as a female student she was barred from life drawing and paintng classes. Instead, she had to work from plaster casts. Her painting Self Portrait With Nude was made with the help of mirrors to reflect her, the model and the canvas. The Royal Society refused to exhibit the work but later when the paintng gained the fame it deserved she was able to win approval for women students in those previously closed classes.
I loved seeing her work again (it turned out I was familiar with her paintings of Cornwall). Her highly detailed images often have the look of photorealism. You're right about her having a great eye for light in her work. I'll always love the paintings she made of the seaside at Cornwall but now I'll have to add the WW1, WW2, and her circus/ballet pictures. That pretty much covers the lot, eh?
Thanks for the reintroduction to her paintings. I've enjoyed seeing them a lot.
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It occurred to me that rereading books we liked is always enriching; we often see things we missed the last time and, added to that, some new insight into ourselves.
It is truly bizarre that the academies felt they had to protect women from the sight of the female nude in particular, when any sighted woman is bound to have seen same if only by accident. Of course intentionally or not such proscriptions kept women from developing their talents. It speaks quite well of Knight that she reduced them to temporary obstacles and even managed to change the policies.
Cornwall is an interesting area in that it's been part of England for even longer than Wales is and thus has even less autonomy than Wales, but there's undoubtedly some rich history there. It's tin deposits were the envy of the ancient world, for one thing. And it looks to be very beautiful country as well. Land that needs artists to document, and while Knight isn't the only artist who have stepped up, she's one of the best.
I'm glad you enjoyed. Thought you might.
A book might make an impression on us without us seeing everything in it. Then on top of that you can find a very different perspective after a few years.
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