Biographies

Thomas Cooper Gotch (1854 – 1931) He was born at Kettering, Northamptonshire His early education was at Mr Foy’s Academy for Boys in Chelsea and the Kettering grammar school. He 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, studying at Heatherley’s School in Chelsea, at the School of Fine Art in Antwerp, and at the Slade School in London, as well as in Paris under J-P Laurens. He visited Australia in 1883, returned to London, and then moved to Newlyn, Cornwall, in 1887 and made that his main residence. He was an original member the Newlyn colony of artists. He was a close and life-long friend of Henry Scott Tuke and . 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. His painting style connected him to the Pre-Raphaelites and the Symbolists. Stanhope Forbes