Laura Knight's Hat

 

Laura Knight Self with Ella Napper 1913 NPG

 Yesterday  an excellent webinar on diverse aspects of Laura Knight's art work was held at the MK Gallery Milton Keynes.  Including a great short film on Barrage Balloons and the women who managed, manoeuvred, mended and maintained them.  if one hadn't known of Knight's  painting of the team launching an airship-sized balloon, the fact that this wartime detachment was [all?] female might have been ignored and forgotten. 

Several MK speakers alluded to Knight's famous and famously popular Self-Portrait painting Ella Napper as a standing life model,  noting the double back views, so that both the egocentric artist's face and the erotic display of the female nude are obscured.  But also, that the artist claims for herself the traditional male role.

Once more, I was struck by her hat  -  surely a version of the bohemian artist's wideawake? rather like a beard a sort of emblem signifying 'Edwardian painter'.  And then the scarlet top, joined with the other assertive reds.  Where have we seen these before?  

In G. F. Watts' Self-Portraits [of which he did many]  Both the black hat and the red gown

    

GFW  was the doyen of the British art world when Knight was young. Even the epitome of the genius painter as constructed in the Victorian age.  Did the Knights visit the GFW retrospective at the RA in 1905?  I 'd guess it had a subliminal, if not direct influence.  

Knight's floppy flower-decked felt and droopy red cardi are of course outclassed by Watts' swagger hat and cardinal's robe.  But they do subtly mock the Great Artist image.

Her self-portrait expresses her ambition in  this period. As she recalled ''An ebullient vitality made me want to paint the whole world, and say how glorious it was to be young and strong and able to splash with paint on canvas.'   

Prejudice 1810

In the first (1801) and second (1802) editions of Maria Edgeworth's novel Belinda,  Juba, a Black servant, marries an English farmgirl named Lucy. The third edition of the book, published in 1810, omitted the character Juba, and instead has Lucy betrothed to one James Jackson.

Both these minor characters belong to a [much] lower social class than Belinda and her potential partners.  Nonetheless, according to Edgeworth the alteration was made  because

"many people have been scandalized by the idea of a black man marrying a white woman; my father says that gentlemen have horrors on this subject and would draw conclusions very unfavourable to a female author who appeared to recommend such unions".

It's notable however that this had to be explained to Edgeworth, who had originally regarded the fictional marriage as quite commonplace, or at least unremarkable among the servantry.  She excused herself by adding:

"As I do not understand the subject, I trust to this better judgment".

Children with Nanny and Gardener

William Mulready, 1854, Leeds Art Gallery 

this looks like a genre scene, but what is it showing?   a couple of posh children outdoors in the care of the nanny and a gardener?   

the children look as if they belong in a family portrait, or a conversation piece, but missing their parents and pets.   The landscape view and masonry pillar indicate a substantial country house, as also do the adult employees.

is the location generic or verifiable?  to what family does this group belong?  Or is it a scene from literature or drama?

The infant in the nursemaid's arms resembles that in Mulready's Toyseller.   Does the boy's drum invoke the Crimean war?    is this part of a pictorial narrative?

i've been wanting to know more about this painting for years.

Laura Knight Study Day

Knight's images are notable for their emotional realism regarding  dancers, travellers and circus performers -  subjects and scenes that were and are routinely romanticized in pictorial art.  

'Allez allez oop!' - the painting above  is one such mix of glamour and exertion.   The bareback riders/acrobats are so young - surely under ten, if not six or seven - and evidently nervous as they jump on and off moving ponies in  the ring. 

The formal qualities of the image are as striking as the feeling - legs and arms in folded sequence, greys, yellows and pink for colour palette, spotlight and shadow, brilliantly dynamic movement of figures and mount.

End of next month Milton Keynes Art Gallery holds a scholarly day on site and online. 

   Details:

 The Show is On: Laura Knight’s Career and Contexts

Conference – Janet Axten, Linda Bassett, Ella Nixon, Lily Ford, Catherine Wallace, Hannah Starkey, Annette Wickham, Alice Strickland, Hester Wetley, Damian Le Bas

Book ticketsOnline Tickets

• 28 January 2022
• 10:00 – 7:00 pm
• A one-day conference on the career and legacy of Laura Knight on the occasion of the exhibition Laura Knight: A Panoramic View
• Milton Keynes, MK Gallery

Session 1

Chaired by Sarah Victoria Turner (Deputy Director, Paul Mellon Centre)

11.45–12.05 Janet Axten (Social Historian), ‘“Fast, Smart and Outrageous”: Art School Fashion in Laura Knight’s Painting’

12.05–12.25 Linda Bassett (PhD candidate, University of Bristol), ‘The “Sew” Must Go On: The Dressmaker in the Work of Laura Knight’

12.25–12.45 Ella Nixon (PhD candidate, Northumbria University), ‘Laura Knight and the Regional Art Gallery’

12.45–13.15 Panel 1 discussion and questions

13.15–14.15 Lunch

Session 2

Chaired by Fay Blanchard (Head of Exhibitions, MK Gallery)

14.15–14.35 Lily Ford (Filmmaker and Historian), ‘Aerial Bodies: Laura Knight’s Barrage Balloon Paintings’

14.35–14.55 Catherine Wallace (Freelance Art Historian), ‘Technique and Experiment: Drawing as the Foundation of Laura Knight’s Success as an Artist’

14.55–15.15 Hannah Starkey (Artist), ‘So, I ask you Laura Knight – how did this great work come about?’

15.15–15.45 Panel 2 discussion and questions

15.45–16.00 Comfort Break

Session 3

Chaired by Annette Wickham (Curator of Works on Paper, Royal Academy of Art)

16.00–16.20 Alice Strickland (Curator, National Trust, London), ‘Creating a Legacy – Dame Laura Knight RA (1877-1970)’

16.20–16.40 Hester Westley (Artists' Lives Interviewer, National Life Stories, British Library), ‘“Like a Half-Rolled Map”: Tracing the Borders of Female Self-Narration in the Careers of Laura Knight and Subsequent Women Artists’

16.40–17.10 Panel 3 discussion and questions

17.10–17.30 Damian Le Bas (Writer and Poet), ‘The Broken Tongue’

17.30–19.00 Drinks reception

As European portraits with African attendants go, this is a curious one. 

The main sitter Catherine-Marie LeGendre is shown pushing away the head of the enslaved servant while inviting the viewer to admire the bowlful  of exotic fruits he holds.

More usually, the exotic lad is shown  inviting us to admire the beauty of  the noblewoman who represents his owner [though  as he is as much an accessory as the fruit, he may well have been painted from any young African available to the artist].

The woman's gesture  compounds the discomfort we now feel when looking at such portraits from the age of slavery.    

Liverpool Museums, which owns the painting, have taken the decision to invite viewers to share their responses and opinions.   Here is the announcement.

'After being conserved, the only Lady Lever Art Gallery artwork from the 18th century depicting a person of colour takes new and prominent position in the gallery The Lady Lever Art Gallery is placing a painting featuring an enslaved African person at the front and centre of its displays. The oil painting of Catherine-Marie Legendre, painted about 1705 and attributed to Jean Baptiste Santerre (1658-1717), is the only item in the gallery’s collection, from the 18th century, to depict a person of colour. Following a period in conservation, the painting will be on display from 1 October 2021 in a new and more prominent place on the gallery, inviting comment from the public.  

'The painting will be displayed with a label which asks: “Does this portrait belong on the walls of the gallery today? Does its display help us tell and understand the history of slavery? Or does it continue to honour someone who benefitted from the slave trade? In light of recent international events, we want to know what our visitors think. We are displaying the portrait to be transparent with visitors and begin this conversation. You can share your thoughts with us by emailing BlackLivesMatter@liverpoolmuseums.org.uk.” 

'This disturbing portrait by Santerre is designed to impress by showing the sitter’s wealth and position in society. It shows a young boy, who is an enslaved African person, brought from a plantation to work as an unpaid house servant. He is wearing a decorative metal slave collar around his neck. His name is not known, but the sitter is Catherine-Marie Legendre (or Le Gendre, died 1749), the wife of French nobleman, Claude Pecoil (1629-1722), Marquise de Septème.  

'Catherine-Marie’s hand rests on the enslaved servant’s head to signify her ownership. It was not uncommon for wealthy white women to be painted with a Black servant in this way. In paintings, people of colour were used to highlight the paleness of the sitter’s skin, which was considered a sign of beauty. Often dressed in ornate outfits, enslaved servants were depicted in paintings as trappings of wealth. The boy is offering a bowl of rare and exotic fruit to Catherine-Marie to emphasise her life of wealth and abundance. 

Alyson Pollard, Head of the Lady Lever Art Gallery said:  'The Lady Lever Art Gallery is seeking to display, more openly, the Black histories and stories linked to the Transatlantic Slave Trade and its legacies which are hidden in the collections. Displaying a problematic and disturbing painting, like this, prominently and acknowledging its context is the beginning of a long term project to ensure our collections are not seen and viewed through a single historic lens but instead reflect multiple histories. 

'This painting by Santerre is unique in the collection, being the only representation of a person of colour from the 18th century. Unfortunately, not much is known about the boy in the painting, which is true of many of the enslaved men, women and children and the histories we try to document across our venues, particularly in the International Slavery Museum. The Santerre painting was previously displayed high up on a wall in the William and Mary room and under reflective glass. Its depiction of life for the very wealthy and of the injustices suffered by people of colour at this time make this a very striking image and one which we felt needed to be in a more prominent location.

'This intervention is one of several actions which the Lady Lever Art Gallery is taking in response to Black Lives Matter and the death of George Floyd. The gallery has updated its website to acknowledge Lord Lever’s activities in West Africa during the period 1911 to 1925 and has started the process of reinterpreting its collection, starting with a key work by Sir Joshua Reynolds painted in 1782 entitled ‘Mrs Peter Beckford’. The new text, as of February 2021, now recognises: “Peter Beckford, like many of his Beckford relatives, had plantations in Jamaica and the West Indies. The profits made from the labour of the enslaved people on his estates helped fund the Beckford’s lavish lifestyle.” The gallery is currently engaged in research into Lever’s legacy and is reinterpreting its collection to fully reflect the histories of the collection. 

'For more information on National Museums Liverpool’s response to Black Lives Matter see www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/blacklivesmatter.    '

The Liverpool collection also includes a rather better-known painting with a Black attendant. Painted by Zoffany in the 1760s, it shows the family of Sir William Young - such a cultured gentleman, with his daughters, dog, horse, cello and African lad to help with the children

 

Rumplestiltskin by Georgie Burne-Jones

In 1860-1 when Georgiana Burne-Jones and Elizabeth Siddal planned to collaborate on an illustrated book of folk tales, Georgie produced some woodcut designs before the project was abandoned owing to Siddal's death.

One of the surviving designs is this illustration to story of  Rumplestiltskin,  from  what the Burne-Joneses referred to punningly as [W]Holy Grim[m].   The girl stitching is captive while the  grotesque creature on the left spins straw into gold, in exchange for her necklace, ring and finally her firstborn. Eventually she outwits him by discovering his strange name.

At first I didn't identify this as the Rumplestiltskin tale, as the demonic creature looks witchlike, and there's no visible straw.  But there is gold in the basket and Rumplestiltskin is plying a distaff rather than a spinning wheel as in most illustrations.

There is one print of the image, among Georgie's correspondence in the National Art Library with a letter dated December 1897.  And I'm pleased to have found its title at last.

 

Erased and Restored

 

Unknown artist, Frey siblings, 1837 

Circa 1837 painting of 3 Frey children in Louisiana and mystery boy (theadvertiser.com)

This portrait of three children from a family in Louisiana has an interesting and not all that uncommon history.  Painted in 1837, it originally contained four figures - the three white children from the Frey family and a tall African-American boy,  who at first sight looks like an older sibling

but who was in fact an enslaved domestic servant named Belizaire, then aged 15, according to  collector Jeremy Simien who now owns the painting. 

 
 Two decades later, Belizaire left the Frey household when sold on to the owners of Evergreen Plantation.     Some time after that, when the painting remained with the Freys, his image was painted over, presumably because slave owning ancestors had become an embarrassment.  

Belizaire remained invisible  when the picture -  attributed to  the artist J,G, Amans - was donated to the the New Orleans Museum of Art, and when it was de-accessioned.  The figure only returned to view when cleaned by a dealer and then offered for sale.

It's odd really, because the four figures balance the composition, and apart from skin colour, there's no indication that the tall young man is not an eldest brother.