Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Chantrey Bequest
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/dame-laura-knight-1424" aria-label="More by Dame Laura Knight" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Dame Laura Knight</a>
Spring
Presented by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest 1935
adults
animals: mammals
architecture
blossom
Cornwall
England
England, South West
England, Southern
lake
Lamorna Valley
landscape
man
natural phenomena
people
places
rainbow
seasons
sheep
spring
townscapes / man-made features
UK counties
UK countries and regions
UK natural features
wall
water: inland
woman
wooded
<p>Knight started painting in her teens in her home town of Nottingham to help support her family. Influenced by Impressionism and the Newlyn School in Cornwall, Knight's subject-matter is contemporary without being avant-garde. Dismissed by Modernists for her lack of interest in formal experiment, Knight’s insistent realism made her one of the most popular artists of the time.</p><p><em>Gallery label, February 2010</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
15 November 2003 – 10 January 2004
2004-01-10
15 November 2003 – 10 January 2004
2004-01-10
2003-11-15
Penlee House Gallery & Museum (Penzance, UK)
2003-11-15
Charles and Ella Naper
Loan-out
29 October 2006 – 17 June 2007
2007-06-17
29 October 2006 – 19 December 2006
2006-12-19
2006-10-29
Djanogly Art Gallery (Nottingham, UK)
13 January 2007 – 15 April 2007
2007-04-15
2007-01-13
Laing Art Gallery (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK)
http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/
30 April 2007 – 17 June 2007
2007-06-17
2007-04-30
Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery (Norwich, UK)
http://www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk
2006-10-29
From Victorian to Modern: Laura Knight, Vanessa Bell, Gwen John 1890 - 1920
Loan-out
9 October 2009 – 23 February 2010
2010-02-23
9 October 2009 – 23 February 2010
2010-02-23
2009-10-09
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-10-09
Independently Modern
Collection based display
16 June 2012 – 10 February 2013
2013-02-10
16 June 2012 – 8 September 2012
2012-09-08
2012-06-16
Penlee House Gallery & Museum (Penzance, UK)
22 September 2012 – 4 November 2012
2012-11-04
2012-09-22
Djanogly Art Gallery (Nottingham, UK)
2012-06-16
Laura Knight - In the Open Air
Loan-out
20 June 2015 – 6 September 2015
2015-09-06
20 June 2015 – 6 September 2015
2015-09-06
2015-06-20
Royal West of England Academy (Bristol, UK)
2015-06-20
Into the Fields: The Newlyn School and Other Artists
Loan-out
11 September 2020 – 9 January 2021
2021-01-09
11 September 2020 – 9 January 2021
2021-01-09
2020-09-11
St Barbe Museum (Lymington, UK)
http://www.stbarbe-museum.org.uk/
2020-09-11
The Seasons
Loan-out
9 October 2021 – 12 June 2022
2022-06-12
9 October 2021 – 20 February 2022
2022-02-20
2021-10-09
MK Gallery (Milton Keynes, UK)
12 March 2022 – 12 June 2022
2022-06-12
2022-03-12
Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery (Nottingham, UK)
http://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk
2021-10-09
Laura Knight Exhibition
Loan-out
3 May 2023 – 30 September 2023
2023-09-30
3 May 2023 – 30 September 2023
2023-09-30
2023-05-03
Penlee House Gallery & Museum (Penzance, UK)
2023-05-03
Lamorna Colony Pioneers
Loan-out
Spring
support: 1524 × 1829 mm
frame: 1760 × 2085 × 90 mm
Presented by the Trustees of the <a href="/search?gid=999999977" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Chantrey Bequest</a> 1935
<p>Knight started painting in her teens in her home town of Nottingham to help support her family. Influenced by Impressionism and the Newlyn School in Cornwall, Knight's subject-matter is contemporary without being avant-garde.  Dismissed by Modernists for her lack of interest in formal experiment, Knight’s insistent realism made her one of the most popular artists of the time. 
<br/></p>

Display caption
2010-02-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N04838</b> SPRING 1916–20
<br/> 
<br/>Inscr. ‘Laura Knight’ b.r.
<br/>Canvas, 60×72 (152×183).
<br/>Chantrey Purchase from the artist 1935.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> R.A., 1916 (145), as ‘Spring’; <i>International Exhibition</i>, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1920 (171); <i>Re-Opening Exhibition</i>, Grosvenor Galleries, February–March 1921 (63); Alpine Club Gallery, April 1922 (11); R.A., 1936 (539), as ‘Spring in Cornwall’.
<br/><i>Lit:</i> Laura Knight, <i>Oil Paint and Grease Paint</i>, 1936, pp.97–8, 205–6.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> <i>Royal Academy Illustrated</i>, 1916, p.130, original version; <i>Colour</i>, May 1921, p.73 (in colour), shows the woman standing alone, two children playing on the wall and three dogs on the right; <i>Royal Academy Illustrated</i>, 1936, p.58, and Mary Chamot, <i>Modern Painting in England</i>, 1937, fig.47, present state. The Medici print made in 1931 shows the picture with a boy instead of the man.</p>
<p>The artist wrote (<i>loc. cit.</i>) that the idea of this picture goes back to the period of the Boer War, when she was staying in Staithes in Yorkshire. She described her first view of primroses in the valley called Pearly Bottom and her first desire to paint <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>landscape</span></a>: ‘I went there many times, hoping to make studies for a great work. There was to be everything that I know of spring in that big picture. All I learned there was the origin of a work called “Spring” painted in Cornwall years later.’ The picture was actually begun early in 1916, the scene was Lamorna Valley and the models were Ella and Charles Napier. In a letter (15 November 1957) she wrote: ‘This picture was painted during the World's War No. I. At that time it was against the law to paint out of doors anywhere near the Cornish Coast. And to get the material I needed, here and there, I had to lie on my stomach under a gorse or any other convenient bush, in dread of being taken off to prison, to make a line or two in a sketch book, memorise - rush back into my studio, and paint. It was exhibited with the original man in it. ... For some reason or other I changed the original and put a boy in instead of the man who now figures again in the work, and the copyright with the boy in was bought by the Medici Society, whose recent reproductions of the picture imply a brownish <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a>, which it never was. I had this picture, which travelled round to many exhibitions, both in England and abroad, for many years, and finally decided that I had made a mistake in changing the age of the male figure, I gave the boy the boot and put back the man. ... While exhibited in the International Exhibition at Pittsburgh sometime between the 2 World Wars, it was badly injured (in colour) by the terrible acidity of that smoky atmosphere caused by the immense area nearby of Carnegie Steel Works. I had a terrible business in taking off the varnish to save it - and had to do some repainting. It was then I put the man back in his place. ... And I do hope it may have again the title I gave it. I hate a title that localises a picture - just a view. Why not have a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/photograph" title="Glossary definition for 'Photograph'"><span>photograph</span></a> if that's what is wanted.’ The picture was previously catalogued as ‘Spring in Cornwall’.</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, I
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-06T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults animals: mammals architecture blossom Cornwall England England, Southern England, South West lake Lamorna Valley landscape man natural phenomena people places rainbow seasons sheep spring townscapes / man-made features UK counties UK countries and regions UK natural features wall water: inland woman wooded