Skip to main content

Knight, Laura, Dame, 1877 - 1970

 Person

Dates

  • Existence: 1877 - 1970

Biography

Dame Laura Knight, is the most celebrated British impressionist female artist of all time and the first woman to ever be elected to the Royal Academy. In her long career Knight was among the most successful and popular painters in Britain. Her success in the male-dominated British art establishment paved the way for greater status and recognition for women artists.

She was interested in marginalised communities and individuals and found great inspiration in circus performers. In the early 1920s Knight visited the Bertram Mills Circus, where she painted some of its performers. Throughout 1929 and 1930 Knight went on tour with the combined Bertram Mills and Great Carmo's Circus, painting the performers.

In 1929 Knight was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, and in June 1931 she received an honorary degree from St. Andrews University. Knight was elected President of the Society of Women Artists in 1932, post which she held until 1967.

Found in 1 Collection or Record:

Photographs and Postcards, c1800 - 1999

 Series
Reference code: 178C108
Scope and Contents

Black and white and colour photographs, negatives and photographic albums mainly containing images of British circus, circus performers, animals and circus personalities but also some menageries such as Bostock and Wombwell and other associated entertainments and non-British circuses taken by David Jamieson, Lindsay Temple, Den Curtis, Capt. Middleton, Jack Niblett and other photographers.

Dates: c1800 - 1999

Filtered By

  • Subject: Musicians X