CONTENTS
1
A Panoramic View
8 Timeline
12 Journey to Fame
21 EARLY WORK
29 NEWLYN
40 The Heat of their Bodies
47 The Interwar Years
57 BALLET
70 Pictures within Pictures
85 CIRCUS
92 Between Painting and Performance
FAY BLANCHARD & ANTHONY SPIRA
PAMELA GERRISH NUNN
LUBAINA HIMID
SOPHIE HATCHWELL
HANNAH STARKEY
113 THEATRE
129 BETWEEN THE ACTS
146 A Complicated Artist
151 GYPSIES
158 The Sky for a Ceiling
165 Dame Laura’s One-Man Show
177 WAR
193 MALVERN
206
BARBARA WALKER
DAMIAN LE BAS
Notes
211 References 213 Image Credits
215
Index of Works
217 Acknowledgements
MONSTER CHETW YND
SACHA LLEWELLYN
At the Edge of the Cliff 1917 | oil on canvas | 58.4 µ 70.5 cm
contrasting the brightest hues,
disregarded. … Mrs Knight, while
than on the appearance, she only
undimmed and unmodified by
aiming at a certain decorative
follows the trend of modern art
intervening atmosphere – a ver-
splendour of vivid colour notes,
which has become dissatisfied
milion and a blue jumper against
still remains a Realist. … She is a
with the limitations imposed by
a sea of delicate heliotrope in On
plein air painter, deeply absorbed
strict adherence to Impressionistic
the Rocks … but the daring never
in effects of light, in reflections in
theories, which lead inevitably to
results in crudeness, and atmos-
atmospheric conditions. … In now
dissolution of form and absence of
pheric relations are by no means
insisting on the substance rather
emphatic design.’26
4 4
L AUR A KN IGHT
The Cruel Sea undated; exhibited 1967 | oil on canvas | 76.2 µ 64 cm
It is not known when this paint-
trip to America she recalled ‘with
fitted well with my mood.’27 She
ing was made. It may have been
the El Greco landscape constantly
writes late in life of the variety
started in Knight’s Newlyn
before my eyes, I concentrated
of subjects and media she worked
period, retained by the artist and
on the study of rocks and cliffs. I
with during her life and of a
only exhibited towards the end of
have a love of the granite blocks
longing for ‘the Atlantic Ocean
her life in 1967. Or it may be an
that border that coast, their
and its constant change of mood
example of Knight returning to
poise is a study that never palls.
… the tide’s rush of heavy waters,
earlier studies to produce a later
Their dramatic possibilities in
the fierce battering of granite
painting. In 1922 after her first
combination with the sea and sky
boulders’.28 NE WLYN
45
Ella Ardelty on the High Trapeze undated | oil on canvas | 60 µ 50 cm
This painting shows the trapeze
Ardelty’s powerful physique,
similarities between Knight’s
artist Ella (Elly) Ardelty
dynamically silhouetted by the
depictions of dancers and circus
(1906–1997) midway through her
spotlight as she swings across
performers, seeking in both to
act, which culminated in stand-
the composition. Originally from
show ‘a proud and disciplined
ing on her head while the trapeze
Russia, Ardelty began her career
people with the strictest moral
swung in a 60-foot arc, without
as a dancer with the Imperial
code’.27
a safety net. Knight highlights
Russian Ballet; there are many
Watching the Aerial Act 1932/34 | drypoint | 30.2 µ 19.8 cm plate
In this print Knight shows the circus audience, mouths open in awe at the performance going on in the spotlight above them. Three adult male figures are highlighted with their respectable dark hats and are shown to be as mesmerized by the show as the children that surround them, although perhaps more wary of the danger. Knight writes of the circus performers’ ‘defiance for the laws of nature’ in the aerial acts and that ‘some of the most difficult feats appear so easy that they pass unnoticed, but are done for the sake of good work though neck and limb may be broken in the doing. The artist’s spirit is there.’28 Watching the Aerial Act is unusual in its focus on the reaction of the audience, as in both Knight’s art and writing her attention is generally firmly focused on the performers and life backstage. C I RCUS
107
Hop Picking – Granny Knowles 1938 | oil on canvas | 63.5 µ 50.8 cm
The painting shows ‘Granny’
fields: ‘Like painting anything on
Knowles picking hops while
the move, such as race-meeting
holding her pipe in her mouth,
crowds, the constant change
and is sometimes referred to
taking place during the stripping
as ‘Old Hand’. Knight writes of
of hop-vines is nervy work. An
setting out to Callow End near
artist has to finish as he goes; you
Worcester to paint the Gypsies
cannot reckon on seeing the same
working on the hop bines. She
thing twice.’12
describes working in the hop
The Water Can undated | oil on canvas | 75 µ 61 cm
The Water Can again depicts ‘Beulah’ (Freedom Smith), whose body Knight describes as a ‘column of muscle and bone’. Knight writes, ‘I was at home with these people, I found them kindly. … Hard is the struggle for those whose foot may never find home ground. But although the mud of the road is their carpet, the sky is their ceiling.’10 Knight and Smith were pictured together outside Smith’s wagon, Knight with palette in hand, for Illustrated magazine in 1939.11 The Water Can was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1951. GYPSIES
163
Ruby Loftus Screwing a Breech-ring 1943 | oil on canvas | 86.3 µ 101.9 cm
At the end of 1942 Knight was
Knight’s composition focuses
asked by the WAAC to paint Ruby
on Loftus’s concentration on the
Loftus, an outstanding worker in
task, surrounded by the tools
one of the most difficult operations
of her trade, as she taps out the
in the making of armaments –
screw threads in the barrel with
screwing the breech ring for a
a lathe. Loftus recalled: ‘Dame
Bofors 40 mm light anti-aircraft
Knight watched me working for a
gun. It was a very precise opera-
day, making rough sketches of me
tion and would create a blowback
all the time. Then at the end of
if it was not absolutely accurate.
the day she decided which one she
The Ministry of Munitions wanted
liked best, which was the one full
a portrait of Loftus to honour the
of “GO” as she put it.’10
women working in munitions
The painting was first shown at
factories. The picture was to
the Royal Academy’s 1943 exhibi-
be painted at the No. 11 Royal
tion, where it was voted picture
Ordnance factory at Newport,
of the year. It was reproduced
Monmouthshire. Once again,
as a poster in factories to boost
Knight queried the fee, as it wasn’t
morale and was also the subject of
possible to mock up the heavy
a British Paramount News short
machinery in a studio. The fee
film which showed Knight, Ruby
was amended and she went to
Loftus and Sir Charles McLaren,
Newport. Much of the painting
director general of the Royal Ord-
was done on-site while Loftus
nance Factories.11 It was shown at
continued working, and it took
the 1947 Engineering and Marine
three weeks to complete.
Exhibition at Olympia.12
9
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L AUR A KN IGHT