1877 – 1970
Dame Laura Knight was an artist who was very interested in circus. She is a Royal Academician and was part of the St Ives School and often painted children at the sea side. She was also a war artist.
We found out about her through Arthur Fenwick’s scrapbooks where there are lots of clippings about her a few sketches and letters too. Laura’s painting are also shown in cartoons, as is she, like the one from Punch, shown above with the following caption, “Dame Laura Knight had unusually keen sight. She could spot a circus clown, they say, a couple of mikes away.”
In 1929 she went to Bertram Mills Circus & Great Carmo’s Circus for a year and got back stage, where she did lots of famous paintings and sketches. Arthur Fenwick got her to do a painting. Some of her originals of Circuses are in the Laing Art Gallery as part of Arthur Fenwick’s collection. In 2013 her portraits were exhibited at the Laing. She also painted gypsies from her mobile studio which was in the back of an old Royals Royce she rented. She remained a friend Bertram Mills.
