Laura Knight
Laura Knight, August 4, 1877 – July 7, 1970, was an English painter and printmaker. She became one of Britain’s most successful artists of the twentieth century, known for portraits, theatrical subjects, landscapes, and scenes of everyday life. In 1936 she became the first woman elected as a full member of the Royal Academy of Arts since its founding in 1768.
Knight studied at the Nottingham School of Art, where she met fellow artist Harold Knight, whom she married in 1903. The couple worked in artists’ colonies at Staithes, Laren in the Netherlands, and Newlyn in Cornwall before settling in London. During both World Wars she received official commissions, producing paintings of military training, industrial workers, and the armed services, including the celebrated wartime painting Ruby Loftus Screwing a Breech-Ring.
Her work frequently depicted performers, dancers, circus artists, gypsies, and backstage theatrical life, alongside portraits and landscapes. Knight was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1929 and continued exhibiting until late in her career. Her paintings are held in major public collections throughout the United Kingdom and beyond.
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