Laura Knight Portaits - Plymouth City Museum and Gallery

In this exhibition that is currently showing at the Plymouth City Museum and Gallery there is a wide range of portraiture that depicts a large amount of people in different scenarios. The images have been painted with the smallest a lot of time and skill going into each piece. Due to the amount of detail within these images, a few look like photographs with the focus drawn to the many elements that make up each image. 

Ethel Bartlet, 1914, Laura Knight

By researching into different practitioners I was intrigued by Laura Knight's work as the focus is on the subjects in their own environment showing how they work and what their craft could be in such paintings of the dancers and women working in the factory. She has captured aspects of people that the viewer might not see if the subjects were painted in a different way for example having them in a studio environment without any objects that could hint at what they are interested in.

 Ruby Lotus Screwing a Breech-ring, 1943, Laura Knight

Laura Knight first started painting in Cornwall in 1907 when she moved there, where in 1908 she had an exhibition in the Newlyn Gallery. In 1913 Knight her first nude painting was shown which was a self portrait that at the time was scrutinized by the public but has since been seen as a key piece in the story of female self portraiture and symbolic of the wider female view. She later went on to paint WW1 and Circus folk in the 1920's, her most dominate work is that of WW2 focusing on the people and where they worked in such images as women working in factories and pilots in aircraft. One of her most prominent pieces from the war is the image The Nuremberg Trial.

Nuremberg Trial, 1946, Laura Knight

"In that ruined city death and destruction are ever present. They had to come into the picture, without them, it would not be the Nuremberg as it now is during the trial, when the death of millions and utter devastation are the sole topics of conversation wherever one goes - whatever one is doing" - Laura Knight

In Laura Knight's later life she painted dancers, dignitaries and well known people such as Jean Rhodes the 'Mighty Mannequin' that lead to further portrait commissions. Knight died on the 7th of July 1970 aged 92 3 days after a large exhibition of her work was to been shown in Nottingham Castle Art Gallery and Museum.