Along with her famous pictures depicting the Nuremberg trials which she produced during her time as an Official War Artist, these paintings are probably the most recognised in her oeuvre .
Somewhat lesser known is the fact that she also painted a significant body of work depicting the spa town of Malvern and the surrounding landscape. Knight and her husband, the artist Harold Knight (1874-1961), made annual visits to the town in Worcestershire after first attending the Malvern Literary Festival in 1931, which was run by their friend Barry Jackson.
A photograph of Dame Laura Knight by Alexander Bassano. Image via Wikimedia Commons.
The couple later moved to a house in nearby Colwall where Laura would often paint views of the Malvern Hills, hop fields, traveller families and horse races, reputedly from the back of her antique Rolls Royce with the door wide open – apparently the only car in which her easel would fit.
Although paintings of the area come up less frequently than the artist’s landscapes of Cornwall for example, a view from the top of the Malvern Hills has been consigned to Chorley’s in Gloucestershire and will be offered later this month.
Looking south west down through a valley, the signed 23.5 x 20in (60 x 51cm) oil on canvas carries an estimate of £15,000-20,000 at the auction at Prinknash Abbey, near Cheltenham on November 21-22
Auction records show that a number of paintings of the area have sold above this level in the past. These include Storm over our town, Malvern which was offered at Christie’s in December 2009 and took £40,000, and a view of the Malvern Hills in the snow that made £22,000 at Bonhams in November 2005.
Elsewhere at the Chorley’s sale, a Flemish red tortoiseshell and ebony cabinet with provenance to Hardwicke Court, a listed Georgian mansion designed by Sir Robert Smirke near Gloucester, will carry a £5000-7000 estimate. Measuring 5ft 11in (1.8m high), it is thought to have been made in Antwerp.
Also with provenance to Hardwicke Court is a 19th century carved Italian cabinet modelled as Siena Cathedral. It is estimated at £10,000-15,000.
