Sold

Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)

Figure study, St Martin’s altarpiece, circa 1928

SKU: 3144

Pencil, on paper and tracing paper

Two pictures (11 1/2 x 8 1/4 in. (29 x 21cm.) framed) :
 8 x 4 1/8 in. (20 x 10.5cm.)
 8 x 4 1/8 in. (20 x 10.5cm.)

Size:
Height – 21cm
Width – 29cm

DESCRIPTION

Provenance:
The Artist’s Estate; Private collection
Presentation:
framed

Provenance: the artist’s estate
Literature: Winifred Knights, exh. cat.,The Fine Art Society, London, 1995, pp. 56-7 (similar work repr. p. 43)

In 1928, Knights received a prestigious commission to paint a reredos for the Milner Memorial Chapel in Canterbury Cathedral, which the architect Sir Herbert Baker was designing. The painting took several years to complete, and it was difficult for Knights to maintain the clarity of her original conception, presented in numerous preparatory studies, while respecting the preconceptions of the architect. 

Taking inspiration from Sulpicius Severus’ fourth-century Vita Martini, Knights records three scenes from the life of St. Martin of Tours: St Martin gives half his cloak to a beggar; St Martin restores a child to life; St. Martin’s vision of Christ. 

The central scene, St. Martin restores a child to life, clearly held a deep significance for Knights, who had recently given birth to a stillborn son. Knights includes herself among the onlookers as well as members of her family, including her mother Mabel and Thomas Monnington; her sister Eileen and nephew Martin provided the model for the mother and child.  It is likely that the elder St. Martin, wearing a bishop’s cloak, is a portrait of the architect Sir Herbert Baker. 

Bishop Bell, who was involved with commissions for religious works from numerous artists including Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, Augustus Lunn and Hans Feibusch, described the St Martin Altarpiece as ‘one of the most lovely, delicate and deeply felt modern religious paintings that I know’ (G.K.A. Bell,’The Church and the Artist’, The Studio, September 1942, vol. 124, no. 594, p. 81). 

Disclaimer:
Liss Llewellyn are continually seeking to improve the quality of the information on their website. We actively undertake to post new and more accurate information on our stable of artists. We openly acknowledge the use of information from other sites including Wikipedia, artbiogs.co.uk and Tate.org and other public domains. We are grateful for the use of this information and we openly invite any comments on how to improve the accuracy of what we have posted.

THE ARTIST

Winifred Knights
Winifred
Knights
1899 - 1947

Winifred Knights was born in Streatham, London in 1899. She studied at the Slade School of Fine Art (1915’17, 1918’20 and 1926’27) . In 1919 she jointly won the Slade Summer Composition Competition with A Scene in a Village Street with Mill-Hands Conversing. In 1920, she became the first woman to win the Scholarship in Decorative Painting awarded by the British School at Rome. She remained in Italy until December 1925, marrying fellow Rome Scholar Thomas Monnington (1902’1976) in April 1924. On her return to England, Knights received a commission to paint an altarpiece for the Milner Memorial Chapel in Canterbury. A major commission for the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, on which she had been working for five years, remained unconcluded at her early death, aged 47.
Throughout her life, Winifred Knights produced work through which she explored women’s autonomy. Presenting herself as the central protagonist, and selecting models from her inner circle, she rewrote and reinterpreted fairy tale and legend, biblical narrative and pagan mythology. She was the subject of a retrospective exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery in 2016.

MORE PICTURES BY ARTIST

Sold
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Lineholt Farmhouse
Sold
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Landscape, Piediluco, Italy, 1924
Sold
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Paradise,1921
Forthcoming
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Compositional study for The Flight into Egypt, circa 1938
Sold
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Landscape with Fence, c. 1920
Forthcoming
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Study for the Marriage at Cana with a self portrait, circa 1923
Forthcoming
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Portrait of Colin Gill, c.1921
Sold
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Colour Study for Foreground Figure of Woman Combing her Hair, Santissima Trinita, mid 1920’s
Sold
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Owl, circa 1922
Sold
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Study for Blue Bells, circa 1937
Sold
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Study of Bluebells, circa 1937
Sold
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Study for the Marriage at Cana, seated nude, three quarter frontal view, circa 1924
Sold
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Illustration to Algernon Blackwood’s The Centaur, 1915
Sold
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Illustration to Algernon Blackwood’s The Centaur, 1915
Sold
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Self Portrait, circa 1916
Sold
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Self Portrait inspired by a fashion plate, circa 1914
Sold
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Study of Ophrys Bertolonii, commonly known as Bertoloni’s Bee Orchid, circa 1925
Forthcoming
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Portrait Study of Colin Gill, c.1921
Sold
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Study for St Martin’s Altarpiece, Canterbury Cathedral, circa 1932
Private
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Self Portrait as Little Miss Muffet, June 1918
Sold
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Study of a Seated Woman for The Santissima Trinita
Sold
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Cartoon for Scenes from the Life of Saint Martin of Tours
Private
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
A View to the East from the British School at Rome
Private
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Compositional study for Pompilia
Private
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Study of the exterior of a house by Lake Piediluco
Private
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Early compositional study for The Deluge
Sold
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Self-portrait sketching at a table
Sold
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
The Potato Harvest
Private
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Self-portrait
Private
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Study for Jairus’ Daughter
Private
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Mabel Knights seated in a hayfield
Private
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Leaving the Munitions Works, 1919
Sold
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Study of Lineholt Farmhouse Facade, c. 1932
Sold
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Figure study, St Martin’s altarpiece, circa 1928
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Study for St Martin altarpiece, angel from the waist down
£3,000
Sold
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Study of a Walnut tree for Scenes from the Life of Saint Martin of Tours, circa 1930
Sold
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Landscape study for Santisima Trinita, circa 1924
Forthcoming
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Portrait of Arnold Mason, circa 1919
Sold
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Italian Landscape, circa 1924
Sold
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Study for Scenes from the Life of St Martin of Tours, circa 1929
Sold
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Figure Study, Scenes from the Life of St Martin of Tours, circa 1929
Sold
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
The original cartoon for The Deluge, 1920
Sold
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Study for ‘Design for Wall Decoration’ – Three Women Bearing Baskets of Apples, circa 1918
Sold
Winifred Knights (1899 - 1947)
Landscape study for Santissima Trinita, circa 1924