Lot 111: AR Harold Knight, RA, ROI, RP (British, 1874-1961) Laura 1896

Harold Knight, RA, ROI, RP (British, 1874-1961)
Laura 1896
oil on canvas
61.5 x 51.5cm (24 3/16 x 20 1/4in).

Footnotes

• Exhibited
  Dublin, Royal Hibernian Academy, 1905, titled Portrait.
  
  The original owners of the present lot were Rosie Good and Oliver Sheppard. Laura Knight first met Rosie in Nottingham and Oliver (a close friend of Harold's) would frequent Laura's Castle Room studio. Oliver was a sculptor and the modelling master at the Nottingham School of Art between 1894-1907. He was nicknamed by Laura and Harold as "Pompous Iscariot" which they shortened to "Pompey". Rosie and Oliver took the portrait with them to Dublin when they later moved, for Oliver to take up position at the Dublin Metropolitan School.υ1
  
  Laura mentions the present lot in her autobiography, and also Harold, who had returned from Paris, 'Only a few moments passed, however, before the bond between us that had been in existence since we first met made itself known - perhaps showing greater strength than ever before. In imagination I lived through his experience; hand in hand we walked through the galleries; eye to eye saw the great masterpieces; I learnt of aesthetic and technical developments hitherto undreamt of. With my hair done in a new French style that Harold fancied, I posed for a portrait of head and shoulders...I often wonder if that fine and rather mysterious work still exists'.υ2
  
  We are grateful to Mr R. John Croft FCA for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.
  
  υ1 Laura Knight, The Magic of a Line, London, 1965, p. 101.
  υ2 Knight, 1965, p. 101.