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Winifred Knights:  Study for 'Design for Wall Decoration' - Three Women Bearing Baskets of Apples, circa 1918

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Presentation: Framed
Inscribed on the reverse: W. M. Knights, 22 Madeira Road, Streatham.
Pencil, squared, 24D X 18 ins. (62.5 X 45.7 cms.)
Provenance: the artist's estate
Exhibited: London, The Fine Art Society, Winifred Knights, 1995, no. 2a
Literature: Paul Liss, Winifred Knights, The Fine Art Society, 1995, no. 2a, pp. 31 and 48

This study is for the earliest of Knights' decorative paintings: Design for Wall Decoration, the Slade Sketch Club Special Figure Subject for January 1918. Knights painted an oil of the Design for Wall Decoration (see below), but the mural itself is unlikely to have been executed - other studies indicate that its intended size was to be 5 X 6 ft (the size of paintings entered for the Scholarship to Rome). The picture is inspired by the Italian Primitives, as the clarity of form, and the thoughtful arrangement of the figures in space indicate. The studies for the composition were probably executed while staying at Lineholt Farm in Worcestershire, between October 1917 and October 1918.
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