Theatre Prop Basket

In the period between the wars Laura Knight moved to London from Cornwall and soon found inspiration for new subject matter in the worlds of ballet, theatre, and the circus. Like the artists Edgar Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec before her, the colour, movement, and the intimacy of the world both on the stage and behind the scenes fascinated Knight and formed a core part of her artistic output for the rest of her life. ‘Her representations of this world capture its colour, costumes and artifice, portraying the nuts and bolts that go into making a performance: how appearances and representations are created and portrayed, and the processes of masking and unmasking that happen in and out of the public eye.’ (S. Hatchwell, ‘The Interwar Years’, in Laura Knight: A Panoramic View, London, 2021, p. 48.)
The introductions she was given to theatre directors and impressarios allowed her unprecedented access to their worlds and Laura soon became a regular fixture at the Ballets Russe and theatres such as Barry Jackson’s Regent Theatre, London. Laura had first been introduced to Jackson by Munnings in Cornwall during the Spring of 1914, after the wealthy son of the founder of Maypole Dairies commissioned an equestrian portrait from Munnings. Jackson had a passion for the theatre and had formed his own company and built the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, which opened in 1913. From 1924 he also leased the Regent Theatre, London. After the Second World War Jackson was appointed director at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon. In 1948 he commissioned Laura Knight to paint a portrait of Paul Scofield (1922-2008), the great Shakespearean actor who would go on to achieve fame for his role as Sir Thomas More in both the stage and screen adaptations of Robert Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons, a part that would earn him both a Tony and an Academy Award. (The finished conté portrait of Scofield was shown in Laura Knight: A Panoramic View at the MK Gallery, Milton Keynes).
Theatre Prop-Basket was painted whilst Laura was undergoing this portrait commission. At the same time the artist found herself increasingly drawn to the wardrobe department rather than the performers. The department was in the midst of a reorganisation following the war, with rationing still in full-force - the department was only allocated 2,000 coupons per performance - ensuring a ‘make do and mend’ attitude prevailed. The bustle and disarray delighted Laura and she described the ‘cutting, pinning and fitting; the floor strewn with odd lengths of material’ (The Magic of a Line: The Autobiography of Laura Knight, DBE, RA, London, 1965, p. 314) with the girls ‘busy at work adjusting odd pieces … found in a prop basket containing all sorts of scraps including ostrich feathers of great beauty.’ (T. Wilcox, ‘Laura Knight Becomes the First Woman Elected RA’ in The Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition: A Chronicle, 1769-2018, London, 2018, p. 99).
The painting is to be included in the catalogue raisonné of Dame Laura Knight currently being compiled by R John Croft FCA, the great-nephew of the artist.