Dame Laura Knight R.A
(Long Eaton, Derbyshire 1877 - 1970 London)

Circus Horses, c.1930s

charcoal on paper

signed lower right ‘Laura Knight’

36 x 43 cm.
(framed 52.5 x 44.5 cm.)
in a period frame

Laura Knight captures a sense of immediacy in this circus sketch with horses, and you can see the speed at which she was working. In 1929-1930, Knight toured Britain with the combined Bertram Mills and Great Carmo's Circus, sketching and painting from life, rather than stifflyposed or imagined scenarios. Her resulting 'Circus Folk' exhibition at the Alpine Club in 1930 was heavily criticised in art journals, but it clearly didn't put her off, as it was a theme sher eturned to over and over again - it was a world that fascinated her.