Marvellous Laura Knight who drew so well from an early age.
Dame Laura Knight, The Fairgrounds, Penzance, (c.1916), Source: Sotheby’s
Who Was Dame Laura Knight?
Dame Laura Knight (1877-1970) was an English artist who worked in oils, watercolours, etching, engraving and drypoint. Knight was a painter in the figurative, realist tradition who embraced English Impressionism. As a teenager, she initially started painting to help support her financially struggling family in her home town of Nottingham, England.
The Fairground
Dating back to the fourteenth century, a fair was regularly held in Penzance in Cornwall, England. Common sights included merry-go-rounds, acrobats, clowns, peddlars, beer-sellers, and men performing card tricks.
Dame Laura Knight, The Fairgrounds, Penzance, (c.1916), Source:Sotheby’s(detail)
According to Sotheby’s
Travelling fairgrounds, carnivals, circuses and side shows, often operated by gypsies, were, of course, a common feature of English towns and villages at the turn of the twentieth century. Many, such as that at Penzance, had venerable histories.
Dame Laura Knight…
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