許文龍說，在形象館中展示湯瑪斯．古柏．高奇（英國人，1854~1931年）畫作《信息》（The Message），是他的最愛。他說，《信息》原本陳列於英國北安普敦一家畫廊達60年，1991年高奇家人決定拍賣，奇美文化基金會掌握機會購進，英國視為國寶，不願放行，因此奇美與英國政府打起了官司，英國首相柴契爾夫人也因此知道，台灣有奇美集團與奇美博物館。

Thomas Cooper Gotch

(b Kettering, 10 Dec 1854; d Newlyn, 1 May 1931). English painter. He studied at Heatherleys in London (1876-7), at the Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp (1877-8) and with Alphonse Legros at the Slade (1878-80). At the Slade, Gotch became close friends with Henry Scott Tuke and Caroline Yates (fl 1880-96), whom he married in 1881. While studying in Paris in the early 1880s Gotch began to practise the plein-air approach later associated with the NEWLYN SCHOOL. Mental Arithmetic (1883; Melbourne, N.G. Victoria), painted in Newlyn, exemplifies the Newlyn painters' concern with light conditions and traditional rural themes.

Thomas Cooper Gotch (1854-1931)

Thursday, 15 December 2005

Thomas Cooper Gotch was an original member the Newlyn colony of artists, the group that made such an impact on the late Victorian art world in England. He was a close and life-long friend of Henry Scott Tuke and Stanhope Forbes. He married fellow artist Caroline Burland Yates. From the mid 1880s, he was a leading figure amongst the young artists who attempted to resist the hegemony of London’s Royal Academy of Art, being a founder member and secretary of the New English Art Club. With William Ayerst Ingram he was a founder member of the Anglo Australian Society of Artists, which later became the Royal British Colonial Society of Artists, and he became its second president in 1912. He was in advance of his times in embracing an ideal of imperial unity in art and his ideas were revolutionary enough at the time for Tom’s more protectionist fellow artists to make sure that he was not elected to the Royal Academy. Born into a successful, non-conformist family who were part of the entrepreneurial middle class of Victorian England, Tom’s life was shattered at the age of three when his father was made bankrupt. The family moved from Kettering to London to live in Clapham with relatives. Tom’s early education was at Mr Foy’s Academy for Boys in Chelsea until his father paid off his debts and was able to return to Kettering where Tom attended the grammar school. Tom was initially destined for a career in the family business, which was the Boot and Shoe trade, and he worked in that business for three years before he was allowed to go to art school. Tom was an art student from 1876-1883, studying at Heatherley’s Art School, the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Antwerp, the Slade School of Art and Laurens’ atelier in Paris. Tom’s group of student friends contained many of the most important artists of early 20th Century British Art and many (like Henry Scott Tuke and George Jacomb Hood) were to remain his friends and collaborators until their death. While still a student Tom married Caroline Burland Yates, a fellow artist and their only child Phyllis was born in France in 1882. His most important works as a student were his etchings, many of which survive and two oil paintings, ‘Monseigneur Love’ (1880) and ‘Under a Spell’ (1881). * On ending his student days, Tom spent time in Newlyn and he visited Australia, but most of his energy was directed towards the politics of art in London. This was one of the most turbulent periods in British Art when young artists, influenced by European art movements, were challenging the hegemony of the British art establishment. Tom was closely involved with the RBA when James McNeal Whistler was the president. He was a founder member and secretary to the New English Art Club, which was set up in opposition to the Royal Academy. At this time Tom’s painting moved away from the depiction of literary subjects of which ‘Destiny’ (1885/6) was the most important example, towards what might be termed the Newlyn style of painting which included paintings such as ‘Mental Arithmetic’ (1883) and ‘Hiding from Granny’ (1883). In 1887 Tom moved to Newlyn where he had already got strong ties with the local artists’ community, having spent considerable time there since his first visit in 1879. For over ten years he was counted as one of the Newlyn colony of artists, exhibiting typical Newlyn paintings. He was a pivotal member of the group, playing a central role in all the activities including the social activities such as acting and singing in dramatic performances, playing cricket, and throwing parties. He also helped to promote the well being of local youth through his contribution to the foundation of the Newlyn Industrial Classes alongside J. D. McKenzie and he was instrumental in the foundation of the Newlyn Art Gallery, designing part of the copper plaque on the front of the building and serving on its committee throughout his life. In the late 1880s and early 1890s the Newlyn style was subjected to widespread criticism. Many Newlyn artists including Tom Gotch sought to diversify their style. At the time of a visit to Italy, TCG adopted a symbolist approach, which depicted realistic portraits of women and children in contexts symbolising idealistic interpretations of their roles. Paintings included ‘My Crown And Sceptre’ (1891/2), ‘The Child Enthroned’ (1893/4) and ‘Alleluia’ (1895/6).** By 1900, daughter Phyllis was coming of age and TCG’s attention moved towards London, where artistic careers were enhanced more easily than in Newlyn. In 1900 he had the house Penwith built at Shottermill, probably choosing the location because of his family association with the Whympers. At this time he painted a number of important paintings in his symbolist style including ‘Holy Motherhood’ (1901) and ‘The Message’ (1903). He also illustrated two books, one about Brittany and the other about Wiltshire. Phyllis, the Gotches only daughter was becoming established in her career as a writer and singer during the years at Penwith. In 1906 The Gotches sold Penwith and began to look for a home in Newlyn, settling there permanently in 1908. By this time Tom’s painting was moving towards the depiction of pageants and night scenes, such as ‘The Return From The Pageant’ (1907). By this time the Gotches had moved into their new house Wheal Betsy. Tom was at the peak of his career in terms of the major retrospective of his work shown that year in London and Newcastle. In Newlyn there was a new upcoming set of artists headed by John ‘Lamorna’ Birch and including Alfred Munnings, Laura and Harold Knight, and other artists who made their home in Lamorna. Their lively daughter Phyllis drew Tom and Caroline into this group although they also remained close to their old friends Stanhope Forbes and his wife Elizabeth who was to die in 1913. In 1912 the Gotches visited South Africa, where Phyllis was in trouble after an unsuccessful tour with a vaudeville act. Tom’s visit was supported by the Royal British Colonial Society of Art, for which he became president in 1912. Back home after seeing that Phyllis was safely married, there was little time before the war broke out and he and Caroline threw their energy into war work. Tom Gotch’s paintings became less popular after the war although he continued to paint in the variety of styles that he had used earlier. His last Newlyn style paintings were probably ‘An Interior’ (1909) depicting a woman on a window seat peeling potatoes, and the more portrait-like ‘It is an Ancient Mariner (1925). His symbolist painting ‘The Mother Enthroned’ was started in 1912 but not finished until 1919; ‘Crossing the Bar’ (1923) was a procession of girls; Madonna of the Mount’ (1925) took up the theme of mother and child; ‘The Nymph’ (1927) was reminiscent of his earlier literary subject matter; and ‘The Birthday’ (1930) was another night scene with lanterns. During the latter part of his life Tom Gotch painted numerous landscapes and delightful flower pictures, many in watercolour, having become a member of the Royal Institute of Watercolour Painter. He also continued to paint portraits as he had done throughout his life. He was a very fine portrait painter, one of the first being the magnificent full length ‘Portrait of Madam Gotch’ (1881/2) that was hung in the Paris Salon while he was still a student in France. Tom Gotch died in 1931 while he was in London for the hanging day at the Royal Academy where his picture, The Footstep, a three-quarter-length study of a young woman, was hung on the line. Pamela Lomax * See: A Long Engagement 1878 – 1881, Pamela Lomax, Shears & Hogg Publications, 2002. Price £5.95. ISBN 0-9540249-1-5 ** See: A Winter in Florence 1891 – 1892, Pamela Lomax, Shears & Hogg Publications, May 2001. Price £4.95. ISBN 0-9540249-0-7

Thomas Cooper Gotch

My Crown and Sceptre, 1892. Scanned from the catalogue of an 1893 exhibition, it is public-domain. The original painting is in color. The sitter appears to be Phyllis, his daughter. This was his first work in his new style. Two years after My Crown and Sceptre he would rework it into the similar but far more powerful The Child Enthroned, his master work.

Thomas Cooper Gotch (born 1854 in Kettering, died 1931 in London) was an English Pre-Raphaelite painter and book illustrator.

Early life

Gotch came from a middle-class business family who were also distinguished scholars and artists. He was sent to a local art school, went to Antwerp (Ecole des Beaux Arts) and Paris (J.P. Laurens), then studied at The Slade in London (1878-1880). In 1881 at age 26, after a long engagement, he married fellow art student Caroline Burland Yates (1854-1945).

After varied and energetic world travel, he became more and more involved with the fractious politics around the resistance to the domination of the Royal Academy of Art, and was a founder member of the New English Art Club.

Gotch and his wife settled at the Newlyn artists' colony in Cornwall, from around 1887, although they had previously visited as early as 1880. There 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. He founded (1887) and later served as President (1913-1928) of the Royal British Colonial Society of Artists. Among his friends in Newlyn were fellow artists Stanhope Forbes and Albert Chevallier Tayler.

His beloved only daughter, Phyllis Marian Gotch (born France 1882), made the young Gotch family a mainstay of the Newlyn social-scene. She and her circle of friends (used by Gotch as models) inspired the stories of H.D. Lowry. Phyllis later became a writer and singer, and married around 1913.

He had an elder brother, John Alfred Gotch, a successful architect, architecture scholar and antiquarian writer.

Thomas Cooper Gotch appears to have been buried at Newlyn.

His painting

In Newlyn he worked first at painting local scenes in the then-fashionable realist manner. But even these often had a romantic edge, such as The Wizard or an obvious love of surface colour.

In 1891 a visit to Florence, Italy, opened his eyes to the work of the romantic European symbolists. He took the brave step of changing his style, to make romantic decorative paintings, when the prevailing fashion was against him. His first work in this new style was My Crown and Sceptre (1892), which was the progenitor to his most well-known work The Child Enthroned (1894). The latter, on original exhibition, was hailed by The Times newspaper as the star of that year's Royal Academy show. Until that time, his new style of work had drawn much critical scorn.

He painted religious Christian scenes, history painting, portraits, and a few landscapes. His best-known paintings, which form the bulk of his work, usually portray girl-children in ornate classical or medievalist dress. The appearance of the girls in his paintings is often noted as being very modern. Gotch was a close and lifelong friend of Henry Scott Tuke, whose work featured a parallel focus on the boy-child. Gotch's life-long adoration of the beautiful girl-child was shared by other Victorian giants such as John Ruskin and Lewis Carroll.

His emotionally-charged work was immensely popular and critically acclaimed for most of his life, although interest in neo-romanticism waned after the First World War and he turned to watercolours of flowers. He also illustrated books, such as Round About Wiltshire, The Land of Pardons (an early study of Breton folklore & Celtic Christianity), and contributed illustrations to school readers such as Highroads of Literature.

A retrospective show was held in Newcastle in 1910, and a memorial exhibition in Kettering in 1931.

Today

Much of his work has survived, and much is still in England; but has never been collected in a print edition. Manuscripts relating his life & work are in the care of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The Alfred East Gallery in Kettering has a substantial collection of his work, but only a small part of it is on permanent display. The gallery sells a small 32-page booklet on Gotch.

There was a show in 2001, T.C. Gotch: The Last of the Pre-Raphaelites at the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro.

Incomplete list of paintings

Death the Bride (1894/5)

• The Wizard (notable early work)
• The Orchard (1887) (notable early work)
• My Crown and Sceptre (1892)
• The Child Enthroned (1894)
• Death the Bride (1894/5)
• Portrait of Phyllis Gotch in Blue (198?)
• The Pageant of Children (1895)
• Alleluia (1896)
• Dawn of Womanhood (1900)
• The Message (1903)
• The Return From The Pageant (1907)
• High Velt, South Africa (1910)
• The Mother Enthroned (1912-1919)
• Self Portrait (1912)
• The Flag (191?)
• The Nymph (1920)
• The Vow (1920s?)
• Crossing the Bar (1923)
• It is an Ancient Mariner (1925)
• The Madonna of the Mount (1926)
• John Alfred Gotch (1926)
• The Nymph and The Exile (1929-30)
• The Birthday (1930)

• The Clarinet Player
• Young Girl Reading a Manuscript
• Dalaphne
• A Jest
• A Golden Dream (1913)
• The Awakening
• Mental Arithmetic
• The Story of the Money Pig
• Fireside Story
• Heir to All the Ages
• The Dancing Lesson
• The Exile
• Study of a Young Woman
• Portrait of a girl with eyes closed (charcoal)

Further reading

• Baldry, A.L. "The Work of T.C. Gotch", The Studio, Vol.13, March 1898, pages 73-82.
• Lomax, Pamela. The Golden Dream: A Biography of Thomas Cooper Gotch (Sansom & Company, 2004) (120 pages, paperback).
• Lomax, Pamela. "A Winter in Florence 1891-1892" (Shears & Hogg, 2001) (28 pages, paperback)
• Lomax, Pamela. "A Long Engagement" (Shears & Hogg, 2002) (76 pages, paperback)