Friday 8 October 2010

It's All Go In the Women's Auxiliary Balloon Corps


A Balloon Site, Coventry, 1943 by Dame Laura Knight (RA). Women from the Auxiliary Territorial Service work the mooring ropes on a barrage balloon. Image  courtesy of the Imperial War Museum




'It's all go in the women's auxiliary balloon corps', a phrase borrowed from the sublime Blackadder television series, has become a bit of a mantra in our family when things get busy.  And it's beautifully illustrated here by one of my favourite English artists Dame Laura Knight (1877-1970).


It's all go for me now because my daughter Olivia is about to give birth to her second child and I am off tomorrow to help her prepare, hold the fort and do what needs to be done.   In haste right now but here is some more of Laura Knight's work:




Ruby Loftus screwing a breech-ring






Gypsies at Epsom Down





Lamorna Cove


Self Portrait


Zebras


Clowns and Acrobat


The Artist

Read a brief biography of her here






English painter and designer. She studied at Nottingham College of Art from 1889. In 1894 the deaths of her mother and grandmother left her dependent on her own earnings, and she taught art from a studio in the Castle Rooms, Nottingham. From 1903 she exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy, London, and in the same year married the painter Harold Knight (1874–1961); they lived in an artists' community in Staithes, north Yorkshire, until 1907, also spending time in another community in Laren, Netherlands. They then moved to Newlyn, Cornwall, attracted by the presence of a number of prominent artists. Although Knight painted various subjects, her reputation was founded on paintings of the ballet and the circus, which became predominant after she moved to London. Technically of a high standard, her narrative realist works were painted in bright colours and have limited depth of expression (e.g. Ballet, 1936; Port Sunlight, Lady Lever A.G.). She painted backstage during the Diaghilev ballet's seasons in London and took lessons at Tillers Dancing Academy in St Martin's Lane in order to draw there; she also travelled with the Mills and Carmos Circus. In the 1930s she started painting horses and gypsies at the races, as in Gypsy (1938–9; London, Tate). An accomplished portrait painter, she painted wartime commissions and was the official artist at the Nuremberg War-Crime Trials. She also did etchings (e.g. Some Holiday, aquatint, 1925; see Fox, p. 60) and executed designs for stained-glass windows.Exhibited first at the RA in 1903, first exhibition with Harold at Leicester Galleries in 1906. Elected RA in 1936, became Dame in 1939. Retrospective exhitibion at Upper Grovesnor Galleries in 1969. Her work is represented in major public art collections, including the Tate Gallery and Imperial War Museum.








English painter and designer. She studied at Nottingham College of Art from 1889. In 1894 the deaths of her mother and grandmother left her dependent on her own earnings, and she taught art from a studio in the Castle Rooms, Nottingham. From 1903 she exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy, London, and in the same year married the painter Harold Knight (1874–1961); they lived in an artists' community in Staithes, north Yorkshire, until 1907, also spending time in another community in Laren, Netherlands. They then moved to Newlyn, Cornwall, attracted by the presence of a number of prominent artists. Although Knight painted various subjects, her reputation was founded on paintings of the ballet and the circus, which became predominant after she moved to London. Technically of a high standard, her narrative realist works were painted in bright colours and have limited depth of expression (e.g. Ballet, 1936; Port Sunlight, Lady Lever A.G.). She painted backstage during the Diaghilev ballet's seasons in London and took lessons at Tillers Dancing Academy in St Martin's Lane in order to draw there; she also travelled with the Mills and Carmos Circus. In the 1930s she started painting horses and gypsies at the races, as in Gypsy (1938–9; London, Tate). An accomplished portrait painter, she painted wartime commissions and was the official artist at the Nuremberg War-Crime Trials. She also did etchings (e.g. Some Holiday, aquatint, 1925; see Fox, p. 60) and executed designs for stained-glass windows.Exhibited first at the RA in 1903, first exhibition with Harold at Leicester Galleries in 1906. Elected RA in 1936, became Dame in 1939. Retrospective exhitibion at Upper Grovesnor Galleries in 1969. Her work is represented in major public art collections, including the Tate Gallery and Imperial War Museum.






English painter and designer. She studied at Nottingham College of Art from 1889. In 1894 the deaths of her mother and grandmother left her dependent on her own earnings, and she taught art from a studio in the Castle Rooms, Nottingham. From 1903 she exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy, London, and in the same year married the painter Harold Knight (1874–1961); they lived in an artists' community in Staithes, north Yorkshire, until 1907, also spending time in another community in Laren, Netherlands. They then moved to Newlyn, Cornwall, attracted by the presence of a number of prominent artists. Although Knight painted various subjects, her reputation was founded on paintings of the ballet and the circus, which became predominant after she moved to London. Technically of a high standard, her narrative realist works were painted in bright colours and have limited depth of expression (e.g. Ballet, 1936; Port Sunlight, Lady Lever A.G.). She painted backstage during the Diaghilev ballet's seasons in London and took lessons at Tillers Dancing Academy in St Martin's Lane in order to draw there; she also travelled with the Mills and Carmos Circus. In the 1930s she started painting horses and gypsies at the races, as in Gypsy (1938–9; London, Tate). An accomplished portrait painter, she painted wartime commissions and was the official artist at the Nuremberg War-Crime Trials. She also did etchings (e.g. Some Holiday, aquatint, 1925; see Fox, p. 60) and executed designs for stained-glass windows.Exhibited first at the RA in 1903, first exhibition with Harold at Leicester Galleries in 1906. Elected RA in 1936, became Dame in 1939. Retrospective exhitibion at Upper Grovesnor Galleries in 1969. Her work is represented in major public art collections, including the Tate Gallery and Imperial War Museum.

13 comments:

  1. Rosie, very exciting and some perfect paintings and titles for the event. I know you have it under control. all the best, Gaye

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  2. Oh yes, I see what you mean about Kinght's work. Me likee too.

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  3. la - thank you. I hope to have things tied down!

    columnist, she is a quintessentially english painter and evocative of a certain era. I think her strong representations of women at war are remarkable too. She is no doubt discriminated against in art history for being a figurative painter.

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  4. How marvelous! I was not familiar with her work. I particularly like the Lamorna Cove painting. Thanks, dear Rose, and godspeed to you and felicitous wishes to your daughter. RD

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  5. Reggie, thank you! I must publish some more of her work sometime. She loved the circus and there is much of Cornish landscape to admire.

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  6. Had known of Laura Knight but was surprised to see the great
    range of her technique. That self portrait is brilliant!
    All good wishes for the weeks ahead, dear Rosie.

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  7. Toby Worthington, thank you for your good wishes. I agree about Laura Knight's self-portrait .. oh I just love her work.

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  8. Dear Rosie, I didn't know Laura Knight's work but like it very much. Loads of love and good wishes to you and your daughter xx

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  9. Delicious. I love the style of the interwar artists, even though a lot of boobies might deride it as decorative- as though that were perjorative.
    I'm a WPA artist freak. Rockwell Kent, Wanda Gaag,Grant Wood. I think the nucleus of their work, besides that deliberately muscular graphicism, is the idea that there's something decent about us, after all.

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  10. Christina, I'm always pleased to introduce artists to artists! Thanks too for your good wishes. The caesarean (on medical grounds) is tomorrow morning yikes.

    rurritable, I was only aware of Grant Wood's iconic work so I have been delighted to follow up more of his work and that of Kent and Gaag. Oh for an edition of Moby Dick illustrated by Rockwell Kent! Impressed by what you said about their work. Spot on if I may say so.

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  11. A greatly underappreciated artist! Thanks for giving her some space.

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  12. Thank you Lucinda. The response to L K has been surprising - surprisingly wonderful. I am sure you are not surprised.

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