Dame Laura Knight RA was born #onthisday in 1877 In this landscape, painted in the Malvern Hills, a large scot's fir branch in the immediate foreground is boldly silhouetted against bright sunlight and leads the eye down across a mist-shrouded valley. The countryside around the Malvern Hills came as a revelation to Knight and in her autobiography she recalled: "It took years and years for me to become sufficiently familiar with the immense beauty of that landscape before I even dared to make the least record of such visual indulgence. As I write I live again, basking in the first rays of the sun rising over the Bredon Hill to dry up the floating strands of mist hiding the flatter country to the west". Knight was the first woman Academician elected to full membership since our foundation, and her election in 1936 marked 168 years since the previous two women Royal Academicians, Angelica Kauffman RA and Mary Moser RA. Dame Laura Knight RA, 'A Misty Sunrise', 1956. Oil on canvas. 76 cm x 96 cm © The Artist's Estate. © Photo: Royal Academy of Arts, London. #RoyalAcademy