Studio: international art (87.1924)

SOME RECENT ETCHINGS AND
AQUATINTS BY LAURA KNIGHT.

WHEN a medium becomes very popu-
lar among artists it is inevitable that
comparisons should be made by the
public between the production of one
practitioner and another, and the greater
the vogue of the medium the more severe
the competition. In any walk of life the
monopolist has the advantage of being
able to say to his clients or his audience :
“lam the only person who can give you
this particular thing ; it may not be pro-
duced and finished in the best possible way,
but there it is—take it or leave it." But
this is an advantage which the really con-
scientious artist will always scorn. If he
believe in himself, he will not be dismayed
by competitors in the field, but will be
satisfied to pursue his own line of develop-
ment. We see so many etchings nowadays,
so many good etchings which are yet
not out of the ordinary, that when we find
something definitely individual we are
260

“THE CHORUS.” ETCHING BY
la[ura KNIGHT, A.R.W.S.

impelled to give due meed of recognition,
and such recognition must be accorded to
the etchings of Mrs. Laura Knight, which
bear the impress of a highly personal out-
look. 00000a
As a painter, Mrs. Knight is well known
to the world of art and to the readers of
The Studio. We have not previously dealt
with her etchings : (it is, in fact, no very long
time since she first exercised her talents
in this direction), but in our pages have
appeared from time to time sundry repro-
ductions, in colour and black-and-white, of
her oil paintings and water-colours, while
three years ago the first Studio folio on
“ Modern Painting ” contained colour
plates from her paintings and those of her
husband, Mr. Harold Knight. From the
Nottingham School of Art Mr. and Mrs.
Knight went to Staithes, near Whitby, on
the Yorkshire coast, and subsequently they
lived in Holland and at Lamorna and
Newlyn in Cornwall. The sea has always
had a great attraction for them, and many
of Mrs. Knight's paintings depict aspects