Gotch, Thomas Cooper
(British, 1854-1931)
Thomas Cooper Gotch was a painter of portraits, landscape and allegorical and realistic genre. Studied at Heatherley's School; the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Antwerp; the Slade School, and in Paris under JP Laurens. Visited Australia in 1883. Lived first in London, then settled in 1887 at Newlyn, Cornwall, where he belonged to the Newlyn School of plein-air painters. Exhibited at the Royal Academy, and in Munich, Paris and Chicago from 1880. Founder of the Royal British Colonial Society of Artists, 1887 and President 1913-28. Retrospective exhibition at the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle in 1910. Alleluia was purchased for the Tate Gallery by the Chantrey Bequest in 1896.

His earlier work was more naturalistic in the style of the Newlyn School. After his visit to Italy in 1891, he turned to more symbolistic and allegorical subjects, and a more decorative treatment, e.g. as seen in Alleluia. Manuscripts relating to Gotch are held by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
The Alfred East Gallery in Kettering, England has a large collection of paintings by Gotch in its permanent collection, including Death the Bride. However, when ArtMagick visited in 1998 none of the paintings were on display. A 32 page booklet on Gotch can be obtained from the gallery: Thomas Cooper Gotch: The Making of the Artist by Patrick Bruce Hepburn (1994). (Contains colour plates of The Child Enthroned, Holy Motherhood, A Jest, The Exile and Death the Bride). The gallery sells posters of Death the Bride.