| Born Laura
Johnson in Derbyshire, Knight was encouraged to paint by her artist
mother, joining Nottingham School of Art at the age of thirteen.
She met her future husband, Harold Knight, here, and they became
associated with the Staithes group of early modern painters. Based
in a small fishing village in Yorkshire, the Staithes group were
known as 'The Northern Impressionists', and were active in the last
decades of the nineteenth century, through to the First World War.
The Knights then studied the Dutch masters in Holland, moving to
Cornwall in 1907, first in Newlyn, later Lamorna, where 'they became
central figures in the growing artists colony'.
Knight specialised in combinations of landscapes and figures,
causing controversy amongst the local population by painting nude
models outdoors. In the First World War Harold Knight was a conscientious
objector, and made to work on the land. In 1919 the couple moved
to London, although Laura maintained her Lamorna studio. In 1929
Knight was made a Dame for her services to art. Between 1933 and
1934 she designed 'the form and decoration' of the Circus range
of tableware for Wilkinsons of Burslem, supervised by Clarice
Cliff. She also designed the 1937 Coronation Ceramics for Wedgewood
and glassware for Stuart Crystal. In 1936 she became the first
woman to be elected to the Royal Academy. During the Second World
War she was commissioned to do work for the government, including
posters for the 'Lend a Hand on the Land' campaign. Collections
of Knight's work are held in many museums, including the Tate
Gallery in London.
Information taken from: Penlee House Gallery, 'Dame Laura
Knight nee Johnson, Penllee House Gallery and Museum, Cornwall
UK', http://www.penleehouse.org.uk/artists/laura-knight.htm,
accessed October 03 2003, Brockhampton Press Dictionary of Design,
1997, p.98
'Home Propaganda', Art and Industry, Vol 32, No.189, January
1942, p.21, See PRO INF 1/637, 'Contracts with Artists: Dame Laura
Knight October 1939-August 1940'', Zimmerman, T. 'Laura Knight
Paintings', http://www.theo-zimmerman.freeserve.co.uk/lauraknight.htm,
accessed October 03 2003
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