Dame Laura Knight RA, RWS, RE, RWA, PSWA, DBE (1877-1970)
"Skating Ballet"
Signed and inscribed, pencil, 27cm by 37.5cm

This sketch is likely to have been executed in the early 1930s when Laura Knight was touring with Bertram Mills' Circus. Laura discovered the new craze of ice-dance at Blackpool. In fact the 'ice ballet' was often included as an act within the circus programme. For Laura it seemed to offer a new means of executing 'quick fire sketches of figures in movement' (BCM Laura Knight: a Life p. 169). She never developed this interest however, as she was dissatisfied with the effect of dancers with skates.

We are grateful to Dr. Barbara Morden for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.

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See illustration