15 Facts About Winifred Knights

Winifred Knights was born in the South London suburb of Streatham, the eldest of four children of Mabel, nee Murby, a former theatrical singer and embroiderer, and Walter, the secretary of a sugar plantation company.

From 1912, Winifred Knights attended James Allen's Girls' School in Dulwich where she showed an early artistic talent, winning both gold and silver medals with the Royal Drawing Society in 1915.

Winifred Knights pursued formal art training at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1915 to 1917 and again from 1918 to 1920, under the tutelage of Henry Tonks and Fred Brown.

In 1919, Winifred Knights painted Leaving the Munitions Works and, jointly, won the Slade Summer Composition Prize for A Scene in a Village Street with Mill-hands Conversing featuring a figure of a female trade unionist.

Winifred Knights's 1919 painting, Leaving the Munitions Works, 1919 was bought by the artist Allan Gwynne-Jones.

Monnington was awarded several high-profile commissions which Winifred Knights assisted him with, both by posing as a model and by preparing and painting parts of the finished works.

Winifred Knights returned to the Slade in the years 1926 and 1927 and exhibited at both the Imperial Gallery in Kensington and the Duveen Gallery.

In 1929 Winifred Knights was elected to the New English Art Club, but never exhibited with them.

Winifred Knights died from a brain tumour in London in 1947 at the age of 47.

Winifred Knights resumed painting after the conflict but died suddenly, from an undiagnosed brain tumour, at a hospital in London on 7 February 1947.

However, as time ran out Winifred Knights was forced to simplify her composition with people fleeing the rising waters and escaping to higher ground, Noah's Ark can be seen in the distance to the right.

Winifred Knights portrayed herself as the figure to the centre right of the foreground.

Winifred Knights was known for her distinctive dress, a stylised version of nineteenth century Italian peasant costume, characterised by a loose ankle-length skirt, a plain buttoned blouse, a wide brimmed black hat and coral necklace and earrings.

Several of Winifred Knights's paintings include self-portraits, including The Deluge and The Marriage at Cana.

Winifred Knights can be seen in the foreground of The Deluge and is the third figure on the left hand side, seated at the table in The Marriage at Cana.