Dame Laura Knight, R.A., R.W.S.

'The Contents of Laura Knight’s Studio', sold by her executors, Sotheby’s, London, 22 July 1971, lot 97, as The Gift, where purchased by Peter Langan

Royal Academy, 1912, no.701

The following condition report has been prepared by Hamish Dewar Ltd, 13 & 14 Mason's Yard, Duke Street, St James', London, SW1Y 6BU. STRUCTURAL CONDITION The canvas is unlined and is attached to it's original keyed wooden stretcher. The stretcher is in two sections which are braced by steel plates. The stretcher could possibly be replaced as the wood has split in several places. PAINT SURFACE The painting has an even varnish layer. There is raised craquelure in several areas, most notably within the white pigments of the left hand figure's dress and the sky but these are are stable. There is also some craquelure which corresponds to the horizontal and vertical stretcher-bars, but these also appear to be stable. Inspection under ultra-violet light show small scattered retouchings mainly concentrated within blue dress of the figure on the right of the composition and in the lower right corner. SUMMARY The painting therefore appears to be in very good condition and would benefit from a new stretcher once the painting has reached its final destination.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

‘The conditions were perfect: continual sun with varying cloud effects. The models had beautiful figures, and she herself felt gloriously well and strong, ready to work from dawn to dusk.’ (Janet Dunbar, Laura Knight, 1975, p.84)

‘… problems had to be dealt with on a big canvas that never came up on a small one – and she found it ‘tremendous fun to let yourself go and wade in paint… I wish there were millions of walls to cover in a sheer debauch of pigment.’ (ibid Dunbar p.88)

The Flower is among the largest and most beautiful of Laura Knight’s canvases, depicting a quartet of girls on a cliff above the sea. Almost certainly painted in the summer of 1911 and exhibited at the Royal Academy the following year as her sole exhibit, it captures the artist’s renewed vigour for painting stimulated by her move from Yorkshire to Cornwall a few years earlier. The clear, bright summer light of the southern coast gave her pictures a startling freshness unequalled by her British contemporaries but comparable with the Impressionists. From this same period is the watercolour Wind and Sun sold by Sotheby’s in 2009 for £914,850, the highest price ever achieved at auction for the artist.

The striped scarf and black hat worn by the woman on the left in The Flower is identical to that worn by one of the girls in Wind and Sun exhibited at the Royal Watercolour Society in 1911. The setting is probably also the same, the cliff-top meadow above Lamorna Cove. The three women in The Flower were probably based upon the three artist’s models who Laura Knight had summoned from London after she found the local women in Cornwall unwilling to pose naked for the figure studies needed for her paintings. The young woman on the left was a particularly beautiful blonde girl named Dolly Snell who had been a Tiller-Girl and was able to kick the back of her own head – she married Laura Knight’s brother Edgar. These tall, beautiful and open-minded young women caused a stir in the quiet community of Newlyn and their exotic glamour is ably captured in Knight’s painting in which one of the girls looks boldly out at the spectator, inviting interaction.

The model for the woman on the right dressed in a blue smock was Florence Carter-Wood, the wife of Laura Knight’s great friend, the painter of horses Alfred Munnings. Laura Knight’s husband Harold painted a contemporary portrait of Florence shown in profile which proves her identity in The Flower.  Florence is central to the love triangle portrayed in the film that has recently been made Summer in February, based upon a best-selling book. Florence is played by Emily Browning in the film billed as ‘a true tale of love, liberty and scandal amongst the Edwardian artists’ colony in Cornwall’.

The youngest girl in the painting, holding the eponymous flower was Mornie Birch the eldest daughter of the painter and lifelong friend of the Knights, Samuel John Lamorna Birch and his wife 'Mouse'. The Birchs lived at Flagstaff Cottage, very close to the setting of The Flower and the cliffs and coves were Mornie's playground as a child. Laura Knight painted Mornie several times, notably Mornie Cleaning her Teeth of 1910 and the vast Lamorna Birch and his Daughters begun in 1913 and completed in 1934 (Collection of Nottingham University). 

In the second decade of the twentieth century Knight worked upon a small number of large paintings, with bold aims to capture modern subjects on a scale usually associated with historical subjects.  The critically acclaimed Daughters of the Sun exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1911 was subsequently shown in various provincial exhibitions, the extensive transportation leading to its eventual destruction. Her other large pictures from this period were bought by municipal art collections and therefore there are few surviving privately-owned examples that compare with The Flower. The fact that the picture remained in Knight’s possession until it was sold at Sotheby’s in her studio sale in 1971 (where it was given the title The Gift), suggests that Knight was reluctant to part with The Flower which is one of the few paintings on this monumental scale from this period in her career. It may be that the painting encapsulated her work so perfectly that she could not bear to part with it.

Laura Knight soon diversified to paint ballerinas in their dressing rooms, circus performers, gypsies and race-goers but it is her pictures of tall beautiful women standing in Cornish landscapes that still resonate as the epitome of Edwardian glamour and the bold new age of optimism.

This picture will be included in the Catalogue Raisonné on the artist's works, currently being compiled by Mr R. John Croft FCA, the artist's great nephew to whom we are grateful for his input in this catalogue entry along with Kenneth McConkey.