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.
