Dame Laura Knight, DBE, RA, RWS (1877–1970)

Dame Laura Knight was an artist of immense courage and boundless energy, whose love for the human figure and the power of the animal form broke traditional barriers.”

Born in Derbyshire, Laura Knight’s journey to becoming one of Britain’s most celebrated artists was defined by sheer determination. Facing severe financial hardship in her youth, she enrolled at the Nottingham School of Art at just 13 years old. She went on to become a central figure of the famous Staithes Group on the rugged Yorkshire coast, and later the Newlyn School in Cornwall, where her light-filled paintings of outdoor life gained widespread acclaim.

Best known for her vibrant depictions of the ballet, the theatre, and the circus, Knight possessed a lifelong passion for horses. In the late 1920s and 1930s, she famously embedded herself with the Bertram Mills and Carmo Circuses, traveling alongside the performers and sketching in the rings and stables.

Her fierce independence and immense talent shattered the glass ceilings of the traditional art world. In 1929, she was created a Dame, and in 1936, she became the first woman to be elected a full Royal Academician since the Academy’s foundation in 1768. Her remarkable career also saw her work as an official War Artist during WWII, culminating in her historic commission to document the Nuremberg Trials in 1946.