Oil Paint and Grease Paint: The Autobiography of Laura Knight

Overview

Laura Knight (1877-1970) was perhaps the most important female artist of her era, and her accomplishments are woven into the fabric of British public life of the twentieth century. Made a Dame of the British Empire in 1929, she was elected to the Royal Academy in 1936—the first woman elected in its nearly two centuries of existence. During World War II, she worked with the government as an official war artist, then was sent after the war to create an artistic record of the Nuremberg Trials. Yet, even as she received such public recognition and commissions, she never lost her interest in those without similar access to power, creating sensitive, deeply empathetic images of gypsy communities, circus performers, and farmworkers in the American South.

Her autobiography, Oil Paint and Grease Paint, was published in 1936 and is being brought back by Unicorn Press for a new generation of artists and fans to discover. Featuring forty full-color images, including reproductions of some of her most famous paintings, the book is a thoughtful, winning portrait of a life dedicated both to art and to public service. 

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