An English impressionist painter noted for genre paintings of the London theatre district, ballet and circus genre. The late 1920s and early 30s are regarded as her most productive time professionally, as she began her circus subjects in 1928 and her depictions of horse racing and gypsies in the 1930s. In 1929, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, and in 1936, she became the first woman to be elected to the Royal Academy. She was a war artist during World War II, and in 1946, did reporting as an artist on the Nuremberg trials.

Laura Knight had a difficult childhood because her father died shortly after her birth in Derbyshire, and the family struggled financially. She attended the ...