Foot of the Duke of York’s Steps, Noon 2 June 1953

Dame Laura Knight (1877 - 1970)

Chalk and wash on paper

2 June 1953

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© Crown copyright, UK Government Art Collection

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  • About the work
    Location
    Country: UK
    City: London
    Place: Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, 100 Parliament Street

    ‘It rained, but this didn’t stop us having our street parties,’ sums up the general mood on Tuesday 2 June 1953, when 8,000 guests were invited to Westminster Abbey (each squeezed into 18 inches of seating) to witness the Coronation of Elizabeth II, while three million people lined the procession route. As part of the celebrations, over 100 works of art were commissioned or purchased by the Government Art Collection's predecessor, the Ministry of Works from early 1953 to 1954 – many of which are by well-known British artists. Among these was Dame Laura Knight whose drawing shows a small group huddled together in blankets on the pavement in anticipation of getting a good view of the procession. Knight was created a dame in 1929; she was renowned particularly for her landscape and figure subjects, especially of scenes from the ballet, circus, music hall and theatre.



  • About the artist
    Laura Knight was born in Long Eaton, Derbyshire and grew up in Nottingham, where she was encouraged by her mother to draw and paint. Aged 13, she attended Nottingham School of Art where she later met her future husband, the painter Harold Knight. She was drawn to the outdoor life and artistic colonies of Staithes in Yorkshire and, notably, Newlyn in Cornwall, where she became an integral figure of the artistic colony, the Newlyn School, between 1907 and 1918. After the First World War, Knight returned to London where she exhibited work frequently. In 1928 she became a member of the Royal Academy and in the following year she was made a Dame of the British Empire.
  • Explore
    Places
    England, London, The Mall
    Subjects
    paper (as Subject), rest/sleep, topography, genre, man, woman, crowd, crown, coronation, monument, litter, steps
    Materials & Techniques
    paper (as artists material), chalk, chalk drawing, wash drawing, wash
  • Details
    Artist
    Dame Laura Knight (1877 - 1970)
    Title
    Foot of the Duke of York’s Steps, Noon 2 June 1953
    Date
    2 June 1953
    Medium
    Chalk and wash on paper
    Dimensions
    height: 38.00 cm, width: 34.00 cm
    Acquisition
    Commissioned from the artist, April 1953
    Inscription
    BL: Laura Knight
    GAC number
    2447