Harold Knight, R.A.

Royal Academy, 1915, no.70 as A Flower

Royal Academy Pictures, 1915, illus. p. 47

STRUCTURE This painting is unlined and in excellent original condition with strong colours and areas of rich impasto. There are small areas of craquelure, particularly to the edge of the table but these are only visible upon close inspection. Beneath the table there are areas of pentiment where the artist changed the shape of the furniture during the painting process. There are also very minor paint losses corresponding with minor cracks caused by the central stretcher-bar pressing against the canvas. The picture would probably benefit from a light clean and minor infilling to the small areas of paint loss. This should not be a labour-intensive or costly undertaking. UNDER ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT There are a few areas of minor retouching in the foreground, to the chair and to the pentimenti. These are not excessive. FRAME This picture is contained in its original ornate moulded plaster frame with minor losses to the mouldings.
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In the present work the young woman gazing out of the window recalls William Orpen's The Window, 1901 (National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin), a painting shown at the New English Art Club, but which has its roots in Victorian illustration. Unlike 'portrait interiors' of the wealthy by Orpen and John Lavery, Knight's rooms are comfortable but Spartan. In this context we may recall the Danish painter Wilhelm Hammershoi whose cool, tonal interiors were occasionally shown in London exhibitions in the Edwardian years. However in Knight, an element of stylish rusticity remains, undoubtedly reflecting the spacious farmhouse at Lamorna known as Trewarveneth, which he and Laura rented before their removal to Oakhill – a single house converted from three cottages by the local squire, Colonel Paynter. Deep window recesses and unpapered walls indicate Cornish stone structures rather than modern brick-built townhouses. The effect of Knight's 'modern life' upon fellow Newlyn painters such as Harold Harvey - particularly in works such as The Blue Gown, 1917 (private collection) - was immense. The main element in Knight's interiors is the light that fills the room – an almost tangible air that led Frank Rutter to reach for more impressive comparisons. When writing about The Letter (Leeds City Art Gallery), he commented that Knight's work 'mingled memories of Whistler and Vermeer'. It contained a 'quiet mastery and exquisiteness rivalling the work of the "perfect painter" of seventeenth century Holland' (Frank Rutter, Modern Masterpieces, with an Outline of Art, vol II, n.d., p. 254).  Having visited Holland and worked in the artists' colony at Laren on three occasions after 1904, it is safe to assume that Knight was familiar with the work of the Dutch masters. In The Girl and the Picture, his admiration for their consummate skill, for mental qualities of slow pace rather than high speed, for poise as much as pose, is self-evident.

We are grateful to Kenneth McConkey for this catalogue entry.