25th Nov, 2016 9:00 GMT/BST
Autumn Fine Art Sale
812
Dame Laura Knight RA, RWS, RE, RWA, PSWA, DBE (1877-1970) "On the Beach " Lamorna Cove...
"On the Beach" Lamorna Cove
Signed, inscribed and dated 'Aug 10 1920', pencil, 17cm by 26.5cm
This is an evocative drawing by Laura Knight, sketched in the summer of 1920 when, based in London after the War, she and Harold were re-visiting their studios in Lamorna Cove, near Newlyn in Cornwall. Sleeping on camp-beds and cooking al fresco, they were joined by a group of good friends, including Ella and Charles Naper, Dod and Ernest Procter, Algernon Newton and family (the paint and brush manufacturers), the sculptor Phyllis Inglesias (known to Laura as 'Golly') and the 'tramp poet' W.H. Davies.(see watercolour W.H. Davies and Golliwog, Graves Gallery, Sheffield). This was the gypsy life that Laura enjoyed and made her subject in the 1930s.
Moving to Cornwall in 1907 it was at Lamorna that Laura was able to develop her passion for painting and drawing 'from the life'. There she developed techniques to capture the atmosphere and elements as they impact on the human figure: noting in her sketchbook "every pose, movement and effect", and in her painting fascinated by reflections of sunlight on bare skin seen through water (see The Bathing Pool c. 1912, Auckland Art Gallery, NZ and Children Swimming c. 1915, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool).
In this sketch we see the distinctive rock formations of Lamorna with three figures in the foreground. On the left is a male in a kimono and smoking a cheroot with a couple in bathing suits, the girl sporting a bohemian turban. It is an intimate group and a record of the companionable and relaxed summer days in Cornwall that were so valued by the Knights before and after the First World War.
See illustration
Sold for £2,500
Estimated at £500 - £700
Light time staining to paper, more evident towards the outer edges next to the mount. (Probably not executed on white paper in the first instance). Subtle cockell to surface around the figure group. Slight brown scuff / tiny sized brown coloured mottling around the inscription/ signature and extending along lower edge. Otherwise good condition. Not examined out of the frame.
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