Laura Sylvia Gosse (14 February 1881 – 6 June 1968)
[ was an English painter and printmaker. She also ran an art school with the painter ]Walter Sickert
Walter Richard Sickert (31 May 1860 – 22 January 1942) was a German-born British painter and printmaker who was a member of the Camden Town Group of Post-Impressionist artists in early 20th-century London. He was an important influence on d ...
.
Education and teaching
Laura Sylvia Gosse, known as Sylvia, was the youngest of three children of Ellen (Epps) Gosse and English
English usually refers to:
* English language
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Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
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poet and critic Sir Edmund Gosse
Sir Edmund William Gosse (; 21 September 184916 May 1928) was an English poet, author and critic. He was strictly brought up in a small Protestant sect, the Plymouth Brethren, but broke away sharply from that faith. His account of his childhoo ...
.[ Her grandfather was the naturalist ]Philip Henry Gosse
Philip Henry Gosse FRS (; 6 April 1810 – 23 August 1888), known to his friends as Henry, was an English naturalist and populariser of natural science, an early improver of the seawater aquarium, and a painstaking innovator in the study of ma ...
,[ and the painter ]Lawrence Alma-Tadema
Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, (; born Lourens Alma Tadema ; 8 January 1836 – 25 June 1912) was a Dutch painter who later settled in the United Kingdom becoming the last officially recognised denizen in 1873. Born in Dronryp, the Netherlands, ...
was her uncle by marriage.[ Gosse got her art training first at the St. John's Wood Art School and then at the ]Royal Academy of Art
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...
(1906–09).[
In 1908, the artist ]Walter Sickert
Walter Richard Sickert (31 May 1860 – 22 January 1942) was a German-born British painter and printmaker who was a member of the Camden Town Group of Post-Impressionist artists in early 20th-century London. He was an important influence on d ...
was impressed by her talent and decided she should learn etching.[ She enrolled in Sickert's evening classes, first at the ]Westminster School of Art
The Westminster School of Art was an art school in Westminster, London.
History
The Westminster School of Art was located at 18 Tufton Street, Deans Yard, Westminster, and was part of the old Royal Architectural Museum.
H. M. Bateman described ...
and then at a private art school he founded in the Hampstead Road.[ Gosse eventually took over responsibility for running this school, which became known as Rowlandson House][ (alternatively, the Sickert and Gosse School of Painting and Etching).][ She served as co-principal from 1910 until it closed in 1914][ and taught some classes there as well.][ Gosse had an independent income, and without her financial support the school would have closed much sooner.][
Gosse remained close to Sickert and his wife Christine, whom she nursed through her final illness in 1920.][ Afterwards, she managed Sickert's household and served at times as his studio assistant.][ In the 1930s, she was one of the organizers of the Sickert Fund, which was raised to enable Sickert to be financially independent.][
]
Art career
Gosse first exhibited her work in 1911 at the New English Art Club
The New English Art Club (NEAC) was founded in London in 1885 as an alternative venue to the Royal Academy. It continues to hold an annual exhibition of paintings and drawings at the Mall Galleries in London, exhibiting works by both members and a ...
, and a portrait of her father was shown in the 1912 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.[ In 1913, she had her first solo show, at the Carfax Gallery, and she was elected to the ]London Group
The London Group is a society based in London, England, created to offer additional exhibiting opportunities to artists besides the Royal Academy of Arts. Formed in 1913, it is one of the oldest artist-led organisations in the world. It was form ...
around the same time.[ She was also a member of the ]Royal Society of British Artists
The Royal Society of British Artists (RBA) is a British art body established in 1823 as the Society of British Artists, as an alternative to the Royal Academy.
History
The RBA commenced with twenty-seven members, and took until 1876 to reach fif ...
.[ She continued exhibiting for several more decades. Eye cataracts put an end to her painting in 1961, and she died in 1968.][
Sickert's influence shows both in Gosse's brushy style and in her subject matter, which leans towards domestic interiors, street scenes, and London night life.][ She often worked from photographs,][ and one of her better-known paintings is ''Madrid Crowd'', painted from a published news photograph of a Madrid crowd in 1931.][
Her work is held by numerous British museums, including the ]Tate
Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...
, the British Government Art Collection
The Government Art Collection (GAC) is the collection of artworks owned by the UK government and administered by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The GAC's artworks are used to decorate major government buildings in t ...
, the National Portrait Gallery, the Ashmolean Museum
The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of ...
, the Ingram Collection of Modern British Art
The Ingram Collection of Modern British Art is one of the largest and most significant publicly accessible collections of Modern British art in the UK, available to all through a programme of loans and exhibitions. The collection was created by me ...
, and many others.
References
Further reading
*Fisher, Kathleen. ''Conversations with Sylvia: Sylvia Gosse, painter, 1881-1968'' (1975)
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gosse, Sylvia
1881 births
1968 deaths
20th-century English painters
20th-century English women artists
Alumni of St John's Wood Art School
Alumni of the Royal Academy Schools
English women painters
Painters from London