DOI Heft:
No. 60 (March, 1898)
DOI Artikel:Baldry, Alfred Lys: The work of T. C. Gotch
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18391#0090
The Work of T. C. Gotck
It is because Mr. T. C. Gotch has grafted upon velopment which has resulted. Before he finally
the realism of his contemporaries a very interesting settled down into the marked individuality of selec-
type of imaginative expression that he has made tion and manner by which his work has, during
for himself a place among living artists which he quite recent years, been distinguished, he went
can hardly be said to share with any one else. In through several artistic phases, each of which may
his fidelity to Nature, and in his regard for the facts be taken as representing a sincere effort to find the
which she supplies, he is exact enough to please way best suited for the assertion of his personal
the most uncompromising believer in realistic accu- view concerning aesthetic questions. He was
racy ; but in the suggestion of his later pictures he obviously, for the first few years of his life as an
makes a persuasive appeal to the thoughtful lovers artist, occupied with material which only partially
of poetic art, and touches a chord to which the suited him, which gave him scope for the display
idealist is always ready to respond. The line he of technical skill, but afforded comparatively little
has taken is in many respects an unusual one, the opportunity for the exercise of those imaginative
outcome of numerous efforts in different directions, qualities of which he has since proved himself to
He has experimented in various classes of subjects, be possessed. Not until he had tried many forms
and has evolved a style of his own from beginnings of realism, and of dramatic subject-painting, did he
that hardly seemed to promise the particular de- turn to the combination of symbolism and decora-
tion that has, by its origi-
nality and definite charac-
ter, distinguished him as a
worker in art who has a
rare faculty of invention
and a really intellectual
motive in everything he
attempts.
His first pictures had no
special intention beyond
the literal expression of
what was before him.
They were studies of
things and people as he
saw them, set down with-
out any particular idea of
conveying a moral lesson,
and designed mainly to
serve as accurate reflec-
tions of the life led by cer-
tain sections of the com-
munity. The surroundings
in which he found himself
sufficed to fix the charac-
ter of his work, and gave
to it whatever meaning it
possessed. It was sober,
serious, and powerful, full
of strong contrasts, and
uncompromising in its
fidelity to the social at-
mosphere of the distant
part of Cornwall in which
he has made his home.
Sometimes it had a touch
of humour, as in The Story
death the bride" from a painting by t. c. gotch of the Money-Pig: at others
74
It is because Mr. T. C. Gotch has grafted upon velopment which has resulted. Before he finally
the realism of his contemporaries a very interesting settled down into the marked individuality of selec-
type of imaginative expression that he has made tion and manner by which his work has, during
for himself a place among living artists which he quite recent years, been distinguished, he went
can hardly be said to share with any one else. In through several artistic phases, each of which may
his fidelity to Nature, and in his regard for the facts be taken as representing a sincere effort to find the
which she supplies, he is exact enough to please way best suited for the assertion of his personal
the most uncompromising believer in realistic accu- view concerning aesthetic questions. He was
racy ; but in the suggestion of his later pictures he obviously, for the first few years of his life as an
makes a persuasive appeal to the thoughtful lovers artist, occupied with material which only partially
of poetic art, and touches a chord to which the suited him, which gave him scope for the display
idealist is always ready to respond. The line he of technical skill, but afforded comparatively little
has taken is in many respects an unusual one, the opportunity for the exercise of those imaginative
outcome of numerous efforts in different directions, qualities of which he has since proved himself to
He has experimented in various classes of subjects, be possessed. Not until he had tried many forms
and has evolved a style of his own from beginnings of realism, and of dramatic subject-painting, did he
that hardly seemed to promise the particular de- turn to the combination of symbolism and decora-
tion that has, by its origi-
nality and definite charac-
ter, distinguished him as a
worker in art who has a
rare faculty of invention
and a really intellectual
motive in everything he
attempts.
His first pictures had no
special intention beyond
the literal expression of
what was before him.
They were studies of
things and people as he
saw them, set down with-
out any particular idea of
conveying a moral lesson,
and designed mainly to
serve as accurate reflec-
tions of the life led by cer-
tain sections of the com-
munity. The surroundings
in which he found himself
sufficed to fix the charac-
ter of his work, and gave
to it whatever meaning it
possessed. It was sober,
serious, and powerful, full
of strong contrasts, and
uncompromising in its
fidelity to the social at-
mosphere of the distant
part of Cornwall in which
he has made his home.
Sometimes it had a touch
of humour, as in The Story
death the bride" from a painting by t. c. gotch of the Money-Pig: at others
74