Dame Laura Knight, OBE, RA (1877-1972)

Laura Knight was particularly  famous for capturing the world of London's theatre district, ballet and the circus. She was a member of the Newlyn Schoolof art and the first women artist to be made a Dame of the British Empire.
Laura (maiden name Johnson) was born in Long Easton, Derbyshire, the daughter of Charles and Charlotte Johnson.  Her father died not long after her birth hence Laura grew up in a family struggling with financial problems.
In 1899 she was sent to France with the intention that she would eventually study art at a Parisian atelier, however, events would prevent this course of study. Instead, after a short time in French schools she returned to England. 
At the age of 13 she entered the Nottingham School of Art and was one of the youngest students ever to join the school. While there she met one of the most promising students (Harold Knight) and Laura determined that the best method of learning was to copy Harold's technique.
They soon became friends and in 1903 they married.   
1907 saw the start of Laura Knight's  impressionist style. The widely admired work (admired by both other artists and the public) of The Beach (1908) showed this style.  Then  in 1913 a painting that was a first for a women artist, Self Portrait with Nude, showing Laura Knight with a nude model (fellow artist Ella Naper was the model). After the first World War  the Knights moved to London where Laura  met some of the most famous ballet dancers of the day (such as  Lydia Lopokova and Enrico Cecchetti , and Anna Pavlova). This was the beginning of the period of her most famous works. From there she would move on to the subject of the circus in 1928.   Her eye then moved (1938) to the world of horse racing and gypsies as subjects  for her paintings. After World War two, she  to documented the Nuremberg Trials in her art. The result was The Dock, Nuremberg (1946). She would continue to paint even after her husband's death in 1961. She produced over 250 works in her lifetime as well as two autobiographies, "Oil Paint and Grease Paint "(1936) and "The Magic of a Line "(1965).

In 1929 she was made a Dame of the British Empire.