Studio: international art (57.1913)

Harold and Laura Knight

The art of harold and

LAURA KNIGHT. BY NORMAN
GARSTIN.

It is always interesting to watch the work of
intimate friends, and to note the effect of each
upon the other, the unconscious collaboration of
minds not occupied with the same work. In con-
sidering the work of a husband and wife there are
still more interesting points to observe. On the one
hand, temperamental differences caused by sex and
the divergencies, both of outlook and expression,
which such differences produce ; on the other, the
constantly growing identity of experiences and the
mutuality of criticism act as centripetal against
centrifugal forces, and it would be as inconsequent
to expect one of binary stars to move indepen-
dently of the other, as to expect artists like Mr. and
Mrs. Harold Knight to move in different orbits.
Before entering upon the slight sketch of these

painters I would like to say a few words of a some-
what abstract character, whose significance seems
to have a bearing on their careers.

I think it was the late J. M. Synge who
said that “ All art is collaboration.” The truth of
this axiom is probably less patent to-day than in
any other age, for the desire for personal self-
expression is so strong in our time, and the segre-
gating force which that implies is so imperious,
that we are apt to look for and to see the trees
before we catch sight of the forest. In other ages,
artists fell into line with their immediate com-
panions, apparently without fear of submerging
their personality ; at least so it appears now to us,
who may, however, be deluded by the perspective
of time, which is for ever playing tricks with our
judgments. Thus it is possible that the postponed
impressionist of some century yet unthinkable will
see in the pictures of to-day a likeness as close
as we see in the schools of Umbria or of Siena.