The drawing most likely relates to Knight’s sustained engagement with circus life during the late 1920s and early 1930s. In 1929 and 1930, she travelled through Britain with the combined Bertram Mills and Great Carmo’s Circus, working at close quarters with its acrobats, performers and animals. The rapidly observed figure and sweeping charcoal marks capture the movement, theatricality and precarious physical control that fascinated Knight throughout this important period of her career.

These drawings by Dame Laura Knight were gifted from a private collection for Good Figures in 2015, the inaugural exhibition of Candida Stevens Gallery. Knight was a natural starting point for the gallery: a pioneering woman artist whose independence and determination helped open doors for those who followed. Ranging across dancers, circus performers and animals, the selection reveals her exceptional ability to capture movement, character and theatrical life with remarkably economical lines.