English painter, printmaker and designer, Laura Johnson was born in Long Eaton, Derbyshire on 4 August 1877, the daughter of an art teacher mother. From 1890, she studied at Nottingham School of Art, where she met fellow student and future husband Harold Knight. In 1894 they moved to the artists’ community in Staithes on the Yorkshire coast.

After their marriage in 1903, they made several visits to Holland to admire the works by Dutch artists. In 1907, they moved to Cornwall where Laura worked outdoors, using broad, confident brushwork and a light and colourful palette. Her subject matter was varied, although generally narrative. She was consistently interested in painting images of women and their lives and painted many studies of women in the open air.

In 1929, she was appointed Dame of the British Empire and, in 1936, became the first woman to be elected a full member of the Royal Academy.  She died in London on 7 July 1970, aged 93.