Oil Paint and Grease Paint is the autobiography of Dame Laura Knight, published February 1936.

(Chapter 35) MRS. SWYNNERTON was … then about eighty years old; her small body contained the vitality of youth, her black eyes looked you through and through; cross-grained [=stubborn/cantankerous], she bore a perpetual grudge against men, who, she considered, had always been against her.  When she started her career it was not thought possible that a woman’s painting could ever be equal to that of a man.  Her work had proved that women can have great imagination and power of execution. When one considers the struggle she must have had to reach mastery so tardily recognised, her bitterness is not to be wondered at …

She could scarcely see then, though her eyes were still so bright. I remember exactly what she once told me. “I was painting a big portrait out of doors in Rome; I stood in the sunlight though everyone warned me not to do so, but I wanted my model in the shadow and it was the only thing to do – I had a heat stroke – it affected my eyes – they were wonderful before that!” …

[In 1929, after being made a Dame at the Palace, at] the next Members Varnishing Day, I sat next to Mrs. Swynnerton. She offered congratulations. With the utmost sincerity I assured her that, instead of myself, I wished that she had been the recipient of the decoration. “Did they give it to you as the first woman to be elected to the Academy?” she asked. “No, certainly not,” I replied. Then in a gracious way she said, “I am glad it has been given to you; no one deserves it better.”

We spent a wonderful hour and I came closer to her that ever before. A brave little figure in her purple Indian blouse. Coupled with the joy in my new distinction was a fear that the honour I had received was but adding to her bitterness.

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