Biography
William Knight (b. Leicester, UK 1872 - d. 1958) attended Leicester College of Art, where he later taught. After working for his father as a painter and decorator, he ran off to London – where he studied at Heatherley’s School of Fine Art – and Paris to pursue a career as an artist, despite family disapproval. At first he concentrated on figure studies in watercolour, but after a nervous brekdown from 1908 he painted only in oil and, particularly, landscapes of Charnwood Forest, near his home town. His first important show was at RBSA in 1901 and he also exhibited at the Royal Academy, ROI, RI as well as extensively in Europe and North America. The Victoria & Albert Museum holds designs for printing and Leicester Museum and Art Gallery has his oil paintings Autumn Evening and Russet and Gold, typical pastoral scenes. Articles on the artist appeared in La Revue Moderne (1924), and The Studio (1927).