Samuel S. Knights b. c.1818

Also known as Samuel Salkeld Knights, Samuel Knight
  • Artist (Painter)
The son of a London sporting print publisher, Samuel S. Knights arrived in Australia in 1852. Soon after his arrival he became known as a painter of prize-winning animals.

painter, was born in London, son of Samuel Salkeld Knights – probably the S. Knights who published sporting prints early in the nineteenth century from his premises in the Royal Exchange Building, London. The younger Samuel came to Victoria in about 1852, aged 35, and began his known artistic career with an Aboriginal picture. A competent, illustrative oil painting, Natives Spearing Eels, on Back Creek (Victoria), signed S. Knights, is dated 1852 (NLA). However, Knights was soon devoting his energies to painting the prize animals of wealthy Victorians and had made enough of a reputation by 1855 to gain a splendid commission. In February 1856 the Port Phillip Farmers’ Society announced that the 15 portraits of prize-winning stock in their recent show which had been chosen by the animals’ owners in lieu of a medal were now complete and on view at Knights’s studio in Collins Street, East Melbourne.

Precisely 15 paintings by Knights (commonly misspelt Knight) were shown the following March at the 1857 Geelong Mechanics Institute Exhibition. At least two of these, however, had not resulted from the farmers’ show; Knights himself exhibited, for sale, White Hawk (presumably another animal portrait) and Girl and Cows . But H. Dewing obviously owned some splendid prize-winning horses. The eight paintings he exhibited, all catalogued as by Mr Knight, included stock horses and draught mares, a champion draughthorse and several individual racehorses, including the Geelong champion Van Tromp. Alderman Lowe exhibited Knights’s Portrait of a Bull Bred by W. Robertson and Portrait of a Horse , J. Tannock showed Master Butterfly , S. Higgott lent his portrait of Black Thursday and Jessy was 'the property of Mr Kelly’. Two unidentified and undated horse portraits by Knights (LT) can probably be identified with this prize commission since the notion of substituting paintings for trophies appears to have been abandoned after this one attempt.

Knights gained further commissions from James Wilson of Geelong and from Francis Tozer of Warrnambool in 1859, the latter proving a constant patron. The new owner of Master Butterfly, James Ware of Geelong, commissioned him to paint another portrait of this prize shorthorn bull in 1861. In 1865 Knights painted the more ambitious subject of horses with jockeys up parading before the start of the Melbourne Cup at Flemington (LT).

Knights appears to have been living in Carlton in 1866-67, On 28 May 1868 he married Selina Wild and they moved to Balmain Street, Richmond. One of his paintings was reproduced in Australian Horse Racing for 1871 and his painting of a bay hunter in a paddock with a bay and grey in the background (p.c.) is dated that year. His naive oil painting of a Champion Durham bull Tooram bred by Francis Tozer, was sent to England as a prime example of colonial grass-fed cattle, but the picture was ruined on the voyage; a replica dated 1874 is in a private collection (Vic.). Another splendid bull portrait (p.c.) is dated 1875, while an equine portrait of 1876 was again for Mr Tozer.

Then Knights visited South Australia. Under the heading 'Animal Painting’, the Adelaide Observer of 4 November 1876 reported: 'The Melbourne Photograph Company, Rundle Street, [ see George Freeman] has on view a production of Mr. S.S. Knights (a Victorian animal painter who is on a visit to this Colony). The picture represents two horses – a beautiful bright bay and a grey – in a pasture, and the artist has given great life and spirit to the splendidly proportioned creatures, both of which look thoroughbred. We have had several visits from artists of the sister Colonies lately, and are glad to welcome them, especially as they give an impetus to local talent’. Six weeks later, on 23 December, the Observer reported that an exhibition of works of art held in the refreshment rooms of the Adelaide Town Hall had included 'some of Mr S.S. Knights’ studies of animals, which were shown at the last exhibition of the Chamber of Manufacturers and others painted by him on commission &c.’.

By then Knights was probably back home. He was continuously listed as resident 'off 100 Dover Street, Richmond’ in the Melbourne Directory from 1876 until his death on 10 May 1880, aged 66. He was survived by his wife, who continued to be listed at this address for some years.

Writers:
Kerr, Joan
Laverty, Colin
Date written:
1992
Last updated:
2011