William Henry Knight William Henry Knight (26 September 1823-1863) was an English painter. He was born at Newbury, Berkshire where his father was a schoolmaster. He was to become a solicitor, but gave up his law studies and became a portrait painter in London after two of his paintings were accepted by the annual exhibition of the Society of Artists. Following in the footsteps of William Mulready, he became a genre painter, his street scenes and interior scenes often showing children at play. His paintings were shown at the Royal Academy between 1846 (with Boys playing draughts) and 1862. He was quite successful and many engravings were made from his works.