Gypsy wagon and tent

According to the catalogue of the Royal Academy exhibition of 1965, Gypsy Wagon and Tent was painted around 1962. Knight had been fascinated by gypsies for many years and had drawn and painted them at Ascot race meetings from the comfort of a shining Rolls Royce, owned by her friend Mr Sully who owned a garage and hired out the vehicle; 'This Royal meeting was a special occasion for the gipsies [sic.]; they came in their bright satin gala dresses, hair elaborately arranged with curls soaped to their cheeks, their sharp black eyes alert for police as they made a round of parked cars which had passengers standing on top. Out came a crystal from a hidden pocket, and a wheedling voice offered to tell fortunes - forbidden by law. They never bothered Laura at her easel in the Rolls; she was a source of money in another way, for now she asked gipsies [sic] of different ages to pose for her, and paid them. More important still, they knew that she liked and admired Romany folk' (J. Dunbar, Laura Knight, 1975, p. 143). The gypsies liked Knight so much that they invited her to paint them in the privacy of their camp on the Common at Iver in Buckinghamshire and it was probably here that she painted this work.

We are grateful to R. John Croft, F.C.A., the artist's great-nephew, for his help in researching this picture, which will appear in his forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the works of Dame Laura Knight.