Person    | Female  Born 4/8/1877  Died 7/7/1970

Dame Laura Knight

Categories: Art

Painter. Born Derbyshire with the surname Johnson. Met her future husband Harold at Nottingham Art School, though they did not become romantically involved until 1894, after they had both left, and married in 1903. From 1907 they were in an artist's colony in Cornwall. At the end of WW1 they moved to London where Laura painted Diaghilev's ballet company from behind the scenes, a vantage point that she would use repeatedly over the years. In 1922 they took a long lease on the house in Langford Place where they each had a studio. Later they also had a home near Malvern. Harold was a successful portrait painter and Laura achieved success with a wide range of subjects, including circus performers and gypsies and was an official war artist in WW2. She was the first woman elected to the Royal Academy since its 1768 foundation, in 1936 - the year before Harold was elected. She died at Langford Place. 

This is an unusual story of married artists, in that the wife not only continued her career but was, if anything, more successful than the husband. The marriage was childless, which gave Laura unusually equal opportunities to work and succeed, and she did.

Our picture is a self-portrait and shows Knight painting a nude, a shocking thing for a woman (but not a man) to be doing in 1913; at art school she had been excluded from the life class.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Dame Laura Knight

Commemorated ati

Laura & Harold Knight

They lived here 1922 - 1970 and this is where Laura died.

Read More

Other Subjects

Eric Bradbury

Eric Bradbury

Designer.

Person, Art

1 memorial
Samuel Courtauld

Samuel Courtauld

Industrialist and art collector. 1932 founded The Courtauld Institute of Art. Managed the family textile firm as a director from 1908,  and as chair 1921-46. Served twice as chair of the Trustees ...

Person, Art, Industry

1 memorial
Lucian Freud, OM, CH

Lucian Freud, OM, CH

Painter. Lucian Michael Freud was born Berlin, Germany. In 1933 his family moved with him to England to escape the Nazis. Grandson of Sigmund, brother of Clement. He was appointed a Companion of Ho...

Person, Art, Germany

1 memorial
Bruce Williams

Bruce Williams

Artist. He describes himself as 'a figurative, expressionist painter who is constantly at odds with creating the pictorial image'.

Person, Art

1 memorial
Dave Binnington

Dave Binnington

Mural artist active in 1976.  See Rochfort.

Person, Art

1 memorial

Previously viewed

Hatch End Station

Hatch End Station

A former station named 'Pinner' was opened nearby in about 1844, and renamed 'Pinner and Hatch End' in 1897. The present station was originally served by the London and North West Railway, and in 1...

Place, Transport

1 memorial