Paintings

Born Laura Johnson in Long Eaton, Derbyshire, Knight was first given art lessons by her mother before attending Nottingham School of Art at the age of thirteen.  In 1903 she married fellow art student Harold Knight and they travelled to Staithes in Yorkshire, before moving to Cornwall.

In 1929, she was created a Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE).  Her work focussed particularly on the circus, the ballet and the theatre.  She also painted a number of works depicting Gypsies.

Knight’s painting shows members of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) repairing a barrage balloon at RAF Wythall, near Birmingham. A quarter of a million women served in the WAAF during the Second World War. They worked in over 110 trades, supporting operations around the world.

As an Official War Artist, Knight was especially interested in representing women who excelled in roles traditionally carried out by men. Her long and successful career paved the way for many female artists.

A father sits looking thoughtful as his children slowly make their way to bed. One girl raises her finger to silence chatter while another child prays. The artist and his own children acted as models. But, there is debate whether the taller figure on the right is his wife Tryphena or his eldest daughter.

Hughes was part of the wider Pre-Raphaelite circle of artists, working with Rossetti, Morris and Burne-Jones occasionally.

Leighton greatly admired Islamic culture, yet made an error in this painting of the Umayyad Mosque’s prayer hall. Glimpsed on the far left is the mihra, a niche which points worshippers towards Mecca. Instead, Leighton makes the pulpit or minbar the central focus as it is in a Protestant church.

The Mosque was built during the early 700s but suffered terrible fire damage in 1893.

After a hard day’s work at sea, a weary fisherman returns home to his waiting wife and child. Young boys help to unload the catch and tidy nets.

It is a romanticised view of rural life reflecting the Victorian middle-class idea of ‘separate spheres’, where men worked while women tended the home.

Sir Thomas Hesketh, a Conservative, has won the election and stands on the Bull and Royal balcony. A cockerel, the Conservative mascot, is held aloft in victory, but it was claimed that voters were bribed. A man in a smock puts money in his pocket and, at the front, people scrabble for tossed coins.

Sherwood, a Russian, lived Blackburn for four years at the invitation of a local merchant.

The children’s tea party, with its matching crockery and bright, white cloth, contrasts with their rather dreary surroundings.  In the corner, an elderly minder quietly sips her own tea.

Webster specialised in gentle, humorous scenes of everyday life, often featuring children. He lived in the village of Cranbrook in Kent alongside other artists who painted in a similar style.  They are known as ‘The Cranbrook Colony’.

Included in the painting are: Louis XVI, Queen Marie Antoinette, the Dauphin, Dauphiness, and Madam Elizabeth, the King’s Sister

During the French Revolution the Royal family was imprisoned in the Temple, a medieval fortress in Paris.  Trying to keep up appearances, Marie Antoinette mends the King’s coat whilst he sleeps.  The children and their aunt keep occupied while, through the doorway, jailers play cards and another peers at the family.

The King and Queen were executed in 1793. When this painting was shown in France it made people cry.

The River Nile burst its banks annually making villagers flee from the flooding. Eventually, the waters subsided and everybody could return home. Since the 1970s, the Aswan High Dam has helped to prevent these unpredictable surges.

Goodall travelled to Egypt in 1858 and 1870-1.  A major work like this was based on sketches made in Egypt but painted in Britain.  Goodall collected Egyptian artefacts to use as props back home, even sheep which he kept in his garden.

Hesperia is one of three sisters from Greek mythology called the Hesperides. They tended a beautiful garden where golden apples grew which gave immortality when eaten. Although she is supposed to be guarding them, Hesperia reaches out to steal an apple for herself. She is sometimes known as Erytheia, ‘the red one’.