The Prints of Dame Laura Knight

Despite a childhood filled with hardship (most of her immediate family passed away by the time she was 15 years old), Laura Johnson exhibited artistic talent at an early age, fostered by her mother who made her living as an art instructor. Johnson learned quickly that her gender was a barrier to equal treatment in the Nottingham Art School she began attending at age 13, when she was not allowed to take the classes with live models along with her male peers, and she was often chastised for her heavy lines that were not deemed “feminine” enough. However, her family’s encouragement, her own determination, and her need to make a living from her art kept her focused on improving her skills despite those obstacles.

Johnson and fellow student Harold Knight became attached and eventually married in 1903, and she took his name. Their formative years as painters were spent in the English seaside villages of Staithes and Newlyn, where they lived and worked until they settled in London in 1919. Laura Knight’s low-key palette, easy handling, realist depiction, and accessible subject matter made her a beloved painter in England, recognized professionally by receiving the title of Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1929 and her election to Royal Academician in 1936. Knight was only the third woman to receive the honor since the Royal Academy of England’s founding in 1768.

Knight became interested in various forms of performance such as the circus, ballets, and theater during the 1920s and ’30s, at the height of her career. Her fascination might have been due to her association with the performer’s (often women) sense of unconventionality in their chosen profession and their determined hard work, which characterized Knight’s own career. Her interest in performance also coincided with her experimentation in different mediums such as printmaking. When Knight was at the circus, ballet, or a theater production, she would be sketching in the audience or backstage to capture the quick movements of the performers. These studies lent themselves to printmaking and revealed Knight’s prowess as a draughtsman. The prints on display at Telfair will show her variety in subject matter, but ultimately reveal her skill at capturing all walks of life.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website