Thomas Cooper Gotch (1854-1931)

Artist Name Thomas Cooper Gotch (1854-1931)
Title Standing Nude Figures
Description These stunning nude figures are by noted Slade School Newlyn artist Thomas Gotch. The painting was formerly owned by Thomas Gotch's grand daughter. Gotch was a key figure in the Newlyn artist colony and helped set up the Newlyn Art Gallery. This painting, circa 1900 is two detailed Pre-Raphaelite standing nudes, the male with his muscular back to us and a garment over his left arm; the female semi profile. They are mounted on a mustard background so really stand out. A truly eye catching composition.
Provenance Grand daughter of Thomas Gotch. 
Medium Pencil on Paper
Size 15 x 12 inches
Frame Housed and mounted in a glazed dark wood frame, 22 inches by 19 inches and in good condition.
Condition Excellent condition
Biography Thomas Cooper Gotch or T.C. Gotch (1854–1931) was an English painter and book illustrator loosely associated with the Pre-Raphaelite movement. His works have been exhibited at the Royal Academy, Royal College of Art and the Paris Salon. Gotch was born in the Mission House in Kettering, Northamptonshire. He was the fourth son born to Mary Ann Gale Gotch and Thomas Henry Gotch (born 1805), who was a shoe maker. He had an elder brother, John Alfred Gotch, who was a successful architect and author. In 1881 he married fellow art student Caroline Burland Yates (1854-1945) at Newlyn's St Peter’s Church. His daughter, Phyllis Marion Gotch was sometimes a model for her father.  After completing his studies, Gotch travelled to Australia in 1883. Gotch and his wife settled in Newlyn, Cornwall in 1887. The couple and their daughter were key participants in the Newlyn art colony. In addition to his time spent in France and Belgium while studying art, Gotch also travelled to Austria, Australia, South Africa, Italy and Denmark. With his parents' support, in 1876 and 1877 he first studied at Heatherley's art school in London and then at Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp in 1877 and 1878. Then in 1879 Gotch attended Slade School of Fine Art with Alphonse Legros in London. Gotch met his friend Henry Scott Tuke and his future wife Caroline Yates at Slade. After their marriage, Thomas and Caroline studied in Paris at Académie Julian and Académie Laurens in the early 1880s. It was in Paris that he adopted the plein-air approach of painting outdoors. In Newlyn he founded the Newlyn Industrial Classes, where the local youth could learn the arts & crafts. He also helped to set up the Newlyn Art Gallery, and served on its committee all his life. Among his friends in Newlyn was fellow artist Stanhope Forbes and Albert Chevallier Tayler. In Newlyn, like other art colony artists, he used the plein-air approach for making paintings outdoors. He was also inspired by James McNeill Whistler's techniques for creating compositions and paintings. His style changed following a 1891-1892 visit to Paris and Florence; His works were transformed from the Newlyn "rural realistic" style to a Pre-Raphaelite style that embraced more vibrant, exuberant colours and "returned to allegorical genre painting". His first such painting was My Crown and Sceptre made in 1892, Commenting upon his new style, Tate said: His new combination of symbolic female figures, decorative Italian textiles and the static order of early Renaissance art finally brought him recognition. On the provisional committee for the 1895 opening of the Newlyn Art Gallery, Gotch exhibited The Reading Hour and A Golden Dream at the inaugural exhibition. Thomas Gotch was a recognised success during his lifetime and enjoyed considerable public acclaim. He was a regular exhibitor at London's Royal Academy and contributed to numerous other national and international exhibitions. His works are still regularly exhibited and are often the subject of academic studies. Over his artistic career Gotch was also a model for other artists. For instance, he modelled for illustrations of King Arthur's Wood for Elizabeth Forbes. Thomas Cooper Gotch died on 1 May 1931 of a heart attack while in London for an exhibition. He was buried in Sancreed churchyard in Cornwall. Also in the graveyard of St Sancredus are buried fellow Newlyn School artists, Stanhope Alexander Forbes and Elizabeth Adela Forbes.
Price SOLD
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