Winifred Knights

Winifred Margaret Knights (1899–1947) was a British painter. Amongst her most notable works are The Marriage at Cana produced for the British School at Rome, which is now in the National Art Gallery of New Zealand in Wellington and her winning Rome Scholarship entry The Deluge which is now held by Tate Britain.^[1] Knights’ style was much influenced by the Italian Primitives and she was one of several British artists who participated in a revival of religious imagery in the 1920s, while retaining some elements of a modern style.^[2][1]

Personal life and career

Born in London in 1899, Knights was educated at James Allen's Girls' School in Dulwich and then studied at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1915–17 and again from 1918-20. Her teachers included Henry Tonks and Fred Brown. In 1919 she won the Slade Summer Composition Prize for Mill Hands on Strike. The following year she won the Rome Scholarship for her work The Deluge. In 1920 she became engaged to fellow student Arnold Mason and moved to Italy to complete her scholarship, living at Anticoli Corrado, a small village to the south of Rome. She remained in Rome from 1920 to 1925. The relationship with Mason broke up and she married fellow Rome Scholar Thomas Monnington on 23 April 1924.

Knights returned to the Slade in the years 1926-27 and exhibited at both the Imperial Gallery in Kensington and the Duveen Gallery. In the period 1928-33 Knights executed the mural St Michael Dividing his Cloak for the Milner Memorial Chapel at Canterbury Cathedral. In 1929 Knights was elected to the New English Art Club, but never exhibited with them. In 1933 Stephen Courtauld and his wife Virginia bought Eltham Palace. They commissioned Knights and Monnington who collaborated with the Swedish interior designer Rolf Engströmer and the Italian decorator Peter Malacrida on the decoration of the interiors of the building. Knights died in London in 1947 at the age of 47.^[2]

The Deluge

The Deluge (1919) by Winifred Knights

To compete for the Rome Scholarship students were asked to paint a scene of The Deluge, in oil or tempera, 6 X 5 feet, which had to be completed in a period of eight weeks (commencing 5 July). The panel of ten judges included George Clausen, John Singer Sargent, Philip Wilson Steer, and David Young Cameron.^[3] Her version of the deluge went through several versions, including a foreground scene of Noah and his family loading the animals onto the Ark. However, as time ran out she was forced to simplify her composition with people fleeing the rising waters and escaping to higher ground, Noah’s Ark can be seen in the distance to the right. Knight's mother modelled for the central figure carrying a baby and her then partner Arnold Mason modelled the male figure beside her and the man scrambling up the hill. Knights portrayed herself as the figure to the centre right of the foreground. The Flood water was modelled on Clapham Common.

References

1. 1 2 Tate. "Artist biography:Winifred Knights". Tate. Retrieved 8 October 2015. 
2. 1 2 Liss Fine Art. "Artist biography:Winifred Knights". Liss Fine Art. Retrieved 8 October 2015. 
3. ↑ Jackey Klein (September 2002). "The Deluge 1920". Tate. Retrieved 8 October 2015. 

Bibliography

• Paul Liss, Winifred Knights, The British School at Rome/Fine Art Society plc, 1995

External links

• Paintings by Winifred Knights at the Art UK site