Thomas Cooper Gotch NEA, RBA, RI
Gotch was a painter of portraits, landscape and allegorical and realistic genre scenes. He was one of the stalwarts of the Newlyn School. Gotch studied at Heatherly's School, the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Antwerp, the Slade School and in Paris. He visited Australia in 1883. He lived in London but settled in Newlyn in 1887. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1880 and at numerous national and international exhibitions including Paris, Munich and Chicago. He was a founder member of the New English Art Club in 1887, of the Royal Society of British Artists in 1885 and the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours in 1912. Gotch founded the Royal British Colonial Society of Artists in 1887 and was its President from 1913- 1928. The early work is very much in the Newlyn School style, but after a revelatory visit to Italy in 1891 he turned to more symbolist and allegorical subjects. He was living back in Penzance by 1910. Gotch married Caroline Burland, who was herself an artist. His work was shown in numerous prestigious exhibitions; for example there were 63 at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and 68 at the Royal Academy.
THE GOLDEN DREAM, A BIOGRAPHY OF THOMAS COOPER GOTCH (Sansom) is an absorbing and informative study by Pamela Lomax which brings Gotch and his achievements vividly to life. (Available from the Lander Gallery)