oil paint on canvas,
152.9 x 183.5 cm
©Tate London 2017
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Winifred Knights
painted this at the age of
twenty-one as an entry
to an art contest
.
Students
were asked to
paint a scene of
‘The Deluge’
.
The contest specified
a finished size of 6′ x 5′ feet,
painted in oil or tempera,
to be completed in
eight weeks
.
Her
original concept
featured Noah and his
family in the foreground,
loading animals into the Ark,
but as she began running out of
time to complete the assignment,
she began radically changing
the composition
.
What she submitted
was incomplete,
but she won
!
Winifred
became the
first female
artist to win
the
Prix de Rome
,
which awarded
her a prestigious
scholarship to the
British School at Rome
.
British School at Rome, 1923
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By making the
theme of the competition
‘Deluge’ instead of ‘The Flood’,
it opened up the competition to a
wider range of catastrophic events
(and myths from other cultures)
rather than being confined to
the biblical flood story
found in the book
of Genesis
.
It’s no stretch
of the imagination
to think that the artist
was influenced by
a World War,
and the
reality of
people fleeing
the violence
.
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Knight’s mother
Jack Lazenby
modelled for the
central figure
carrying
a baby,
and her
then-partner
Arnold Mason
modelled the male
figure beside her and
the man scrambling
up the hill
.
Knights
portrayed herself
as the figure to the
center right of the
foreground.
2 September 2020
“Women of the wars:
five female artists who
depicted women’s
contributions”
Art UK
Here’s a photo of Knights’
final compositional study
for ‘The Deluge’:
(1920), Winifred Knights
University College London
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I
had to look
at the painting
for awhile to get
a sense of what
it was about
,
and I might
not have realized
that it’s a flood scene
without the help
of the title
.
I love
the style of it,
and the colors and
the motion of the figures
.
As I was trying to figure out
which areas of the painting were
wet and which were dry, I saw
details that I hadn’t noticed
at first, like the people
reaching over the
wall to pull a
child from
the water
.
Then
I realized
that the Ark is
surrounded by water,
floating peacefully in
the upper right
.
My mind had
originally interpreted
that feature as a building,
but the biblical description
of the Ark is more like a
covered barge than
the wooden ships
we colored in
Sunday School
.
Instead of
directing our focus
towards the survivors
of the flood, as most
traditional images
of this story do,
our attention
is drawn to
the victims
.
Our thoughts
might linger on a
different part of the
story than the way
we learned it
in school
.
My mental image
of the biblical flood story
is a rainbow arching over
a big wooden boat, with
two elephants and
two giraffes
,
but
this painting
reframes that
perception
.
I
imagine
frightened
children
.
I sense
the panic of
their parents
.
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Winifred
died of a brain
tumor at the age
of 47, a year after
her marriage
fell apart
.
She had no obituary,
her ex-husband did not
attend the funeral, and she
was at risk of fading into
obscurity until recently,
when her works were
collected for an
exhibition in
Scotland
.
Instead of linking
to a generic source like
Wikipedia for more info,
I think you might enjoy
this article
:
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ADDENDUM:
Beyond
Compare?
I explored
many different websites
to learn more about the artist
and her paintings, and realized
that the pictures don’t all
look the same!
How can I know
which image is the
most accurate?
Since the
painting resides at the
Tate Gallery Collection
I should have used
their photo for
this article
.
Unfortunately,
the image on their website
is very drab and doesn’t seem
to match most of the other
copies on the internet
!!!
As
I searched
for better images,
I noticed drastic
variations
.
Here is the
official image
from Tate
:
The image at
Wikipedia is CROPPED!
and colored differently:
The copy at ArtUK
is darker:
ArtNet’s
is the worst I’ve seen:
(that’s embarrassing!)
Here’s the one
I chose
:
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I’ve seen
many examples of
cropped and distorted
artwork lately, but don’t
misunderstand
,
I appreciate
all the volunteers who
are creating and maintaining
these free online sources for
images and descriptions
of artwork
.
Although
I’m worried about
accuracy, I’m grateful to
have the ability to search
and view and compare
and study online
.
!!! THANK YOU !!!
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The photo I chose for
this article was from the
Dulwich Picture Gallery,
because it more closely
matches the painting
I can see in this
video
.
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thanks for visiting
come back soon
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I visited the Dulwich Picture Gallery on my last trip to England – it was a 30 minute walk from where I was staying in Camberwell–rather an adventure to get there, though a nice walk nonetheless. It’s the oldest public art gallery in England, and I just revisited the history on the Dulwich Picture Gallery website–a really interesting history that goes back further than the physical gallery.
I like that Knight has made it a contemporary scene but still with a sense of timelessness. As you said, we’re all familiar with the cozy part of the story with the animals bundled into the ark–but the danger, fear, and pandemonium of the deluge outside is where the real pathos and drama lie. It’s interesting to see both the modernism and a shared sense of palette and form with Grant Wood in this. (Interesting that Knight and Wood were both referencing Renaissance art styles and putting a modern twist on them).