|
It was the Leeds painter, Gilbert Foster, who first pioneered painting at the North Yorkshire fishing villages of Staithes and Runswick Bay. Jackson
was a regular visitor and eventually settled down in the area. He lived at the nearby village of Hinderwell.
In those days, these villages were isolated and inaccessible and were dependent upon and
dominated by the fishing industry. From about 1880, and for the following thirty years, they became the focal point for about 25 artists who worked and exhibited together as the 'Staithes Group'.
Amongst the group, there seems to have been that strong sense of camaraderie typical of the artistic life of the time. Sickert describes this loyalty and support thus:
"It is well to remember
that the language of paint like many others is kneaded and shaped by all the competent workmen labouring at a given moment, that it is, with all its individual variations a common language, and not one
of us would have been exactly what he is but for the influence and the experience of all the other competent workmen of that period."
Despite this group feeling there seems to have a pervading
atmosphere of tension, probably derived from a strong identification with the community and its constant struggles with the sea. In her autobiography ,Laura Knight describes leaving Staithes for Newlyn
with what seems to be a feeling of some relief.
Although the artists at Staithes participated in many social events and festivities, the group lacked that vital Bohemian element which was a feature
of its counterpart in Cornwall, the Newlyn Group.
|
Laura Johnson was born in Long Eaton, Derbyshire and later moved with her mother and two sisters to Nottingham. She attended Nottingham School of Art
in 1880 where she met her future husband Harold Knight.
They arrived in Newlyn in 1907 attracted by the more energetic climate of the Newlyn colony when compared to Staines, a little fishing village
on the Yorkshire coast where, she had previously worked.
The Knights stayed in West Cornwall until 1918, living first in Newlyn but later joining the growing colony at Lamorna. She is best known for
her coastal scenes and later her circus paintings.
|
