Arthur Knighton-Hammond 'The Forgotten Impressionist'

Once collected by Royalty and patronised by London's elite, Arthur Knighton-Hammond belongs to that company of artists whose gifts are immediately legible.

Standing before his watercolours, the world inside them seems to settle into place through atmosphere, distance, movement, and the gentle cadent sense of life within. His particular strength was a rare balance. A naturally born draughtsman, there is a structural certainty which later joined an Impressionist responsiveness to light, so that his work feels both designed and freshly observed, and contemporary critics noticed exactly this. Praised as ‘delightfully fresh, free and sparkling… marked by a liveliness of manner that is exceedingly well controlled,’ his management of watercolour was thoroughly sound and admired for their convincing animation and directness of touch and beauty of fresh, luminous colour. This exhibition is a review of Arthur’s particular charm, which lay in his sensitivity of observation and skilful transcription of nature, with a more than ordinary degree of authority. Even the later framing of his story by this biographer, Peter Norris, carries an edge, calling him “The Forgotten Impressionist.”

What to expect:
Painting