Private
Harold Knight
(1874 - 1961)
Portait of a young boy seated to one side of an oak carver, circa 1910
Private Collection
Harold Knight (1874 - 1961)
Inscribed on the backboard, By Harold Knight RA, presented to Dily Cumming by Colwin and Rosaleen Sheppard
Oil on panel, 9 1/2 x 7 in. (24 x 17.8 cm.)
Size:
Height – 24cm
Width – 17.8cm
Provenance: Colwin and Rosaleen Sheppard; private collection France
Knight was born in Nottingham, England, the son of an architect, and
studied at Nottingham School of Art under Wilson Foster. It was at the
School of Art that he met fellow artist, Laura Johnson, whom he married
in 1903
After spending time in Paris, studying art under
Jean-Paul Laurens and Benjamin-Constant, then at Staithes on the North
Yorkshire coast, in 1907 Harold and Laura Knight moved to Newlyn, a
fishing port in Cornwall where they became part of the Newlyn School.
During
the First World War, Knight’s principles led him to be a conscientious
objector, which earned him the rebuke of many of his colleagues and
former friends, and put a strain on his physical and mental health as he
was forced to work as a farm labourer. When the War ended, he and Laura
moved to London, although they frequently returned to Cornwall to
paint.
Knight was elected a Royal Academician in 1931, and died on 3 October 1961 in Colwall, Herefordshire.
Painter, born in Nottingham, the son of William Knight, an architect and amateur painter. He studied at Nottingham School of Art where he won a travelling scholarship which enabled him to further his studies in Paris, 1893-94 at the Acad mie Julian. He met Laura Johnson, a fellow student at Nottingham School of Art, and married her in 1903. He first exhibited at the RA in 1896 and had his first joint exhibition with his wife at the Leicester Galleries, 1906. With his wife they lived and worked at Staithes, Yorkshire, where they were active members of the Staithes Group of Artists. They also made several working trips to Holland painting at the artists’ colony of Laren located about 20 miles south-east of Amsterdam. Harold and Laura relocated to Newlyn, Cornwall in 1908 and joined the artists’ colony there known as the Newlyn School.
The following year he undertook a series of paintings of women in interiors, a subject dear to him all his life. He was a conscientious objector during World War I and in 1919 he and his wife moved back to London. In the capital, Harold Knight continued as a portrait painter of well-known society figures and in 1925 was awarded a Silver Medal for his portrait of Ethel Bartlett at the Paris Salon. He was elected President of the Nottingham Society of Artists, 1936-1946 and he exhibited regularly at the RA and RP. He was elected an Associate of the RA, 1928, and RA, 1937, each time a year after his wife. He also exhibited at the Leicester Galleries, ROI, RP, RWA and NSA. Examples of his work are in the collections of art galleries in Auckland, Brisbane, Dunedin, Perth, Wellington, the Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro, Penlee House Museum, Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum, Bournemouth, Nottingham Art Gallery, Brighton & Hove Art Gallery and the Tate Gallery, London.
With thanks to artbiogs.co.uk
