Gotch Mental Arithmetic 1883 {1884} NGV [PA]

Gotch, Thomas Cooper (1854-1931; English)
Mental Arithmetic 1883
Oil on canvas, 153.5 x 123.0 cm
Gift of J.S.Gotch, 1884
National Gallery of Victoria (p.309.5-1)

This illustration of folk wisdom was painted in Newlyn, Cornwall.

Later, after a trip to Italy, Gotch’s style moved in a more stylized direction, exemplified by his striking child portrait, My crown and sceptre (1891), bought for the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1899.

Refs.

AR 1884, p.36; NGV 1894, p.92 (IV.McArthur Gallery, no.55); NGV 1905, p.88 (III.McArthur Gallery, no.22; ill.) 

For the present work, see also Gott 19C, p.98

For the artist, see Bénézit 6, p.482; AKL59 (2008), pp.211-12; and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cooper_Gotch. For My crown and sceptre, refer http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/902/. See also Wood Victorian Painters (1995), vol.2, pp.102-4 (“Impressionism and the Newlyn School”)