£15,000
MODERN MADE: Modern & Post-War Art, Design & Studio Ceramics | 677
Auction: 29 April 2022 at 11:00 BST
signed (lower left), oil on canvas
Knight was born in Nottingham. He trained at Nottingham School of Art - where he met Laura Johnson (1877-1970) - and in various Parisian ateliers. The couple spent time in the community of artists based at Staithes, a fishing village in Yorkshire before marrying in 1903; thereafter Laura established an international reputation under her married surname. After travelling in the Netherlands and exhibiting in London together, the Knights moved to Cornwall in 1907. They became key figures in the ‘Newlyn School’ and, despite moving to London in 1919, regularly returned to paint in Cornwall. Following the outbreak of World War One, Knight registered as a conscientious objector and worked as an agricultural labourer. After the war he became known for his portraits, interiors and landscapes, which he showed in group exhibitions including at the Royal Academy from 1896 until 1961; he was elected a member in 1937 and was President of the Nottingham Society of Artists between 1936 and 1945. The Knights were based in Malvern, Worcestershire during World War Two, with Knight dying nearby in 1961.
Clifftop View, Land’s End is a beautiful example of the images Knight painted of the Cornish coast, in this case the most westerly part of mainland England. Knight’s high viewpoint does full justice to the dramatic granite cliffs, leading the eye from the detailed foreground to the high horizon in the distance. Waves follow the contours of invisible coves and bays on which bright sunshine and dense shadow play. Knight’s excellent draughtsmanship and sensitivity to colour and tone is clear. It bears witness to the declaration in a 1921 article in The Studio about Harold and Laura Knight’s work that the former ‘has devoted himself to the study of the effect of daylight, both in the open and indoors and he has mastered the difficulties created by the subtle variations of tone and colour due to the pervading light. This enables him to introduce into his pictures delicate and beautiful tone-gradations without sacrificing the brilliancy and freshness of his colour-schemes.’ (Ernest G. Halton, ‘Foreword’, Modern Paintings Number One: The Work of Laura and Harold Knight, The Studio Ltd, London, 1921, p. 5).