Lady in a blue dress

This painting of a young woman sitting on a rock is something of a curiosity. The technique is unusual in that the work has been painted in thick oil paints, heavily splashed on, and brushed in with very dominant upward and downward strokes covering the background scenery, and also on the model's dress, not in the finer draughtsmanship style usually associated with the artist at the time. Painted when Laura and Harold Knight were living in Cornwall it appears to show the influence of her friend, the artist, Sir Alfred Munnings.

John Croft poses the question in his catalogue raisonné as to whether at the time of painting the artist was perhaps in a mood of annoyance, thus taking out all her stress with the paint brush? It has been suggested that perhaps the work was signed at a later date, but completed in 1912/13 when the artist was unwell and had to subsequently spend a short period of time in the Plymouth Nursing home to recover.

It was included as the first painting in the South Gallery at the large retrospective of Dame Laura Knight's work in 1965.

The painting is no. #0200 in the catalogue raisonné of Dame Laura Knight currently being compiled by R John Croft FCA, the great-nephew of the artist. We are grateful for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.