Sylvia Gosse R.B.A., R.E.,S.W.A. (1881-1968)

Laura Gosse, known as Sylvia Gosse, was perhaps the most important of the women artists who worked closely with Walter Sickert, and were inspired by his example. Born in 1881 to the Victorian novelist Edmund Gosse and landscape painter Nellie Epps, she grew up in a formidable cultural circle. Her interest in painting developed while she was at school in France. She later studied at St John's Wood School of Art and the Royal Academy Schools (1903-6). She met Walter Sickert in 1908 when she attended his etching classes at Westminster School of Art. By the following year he had become a family friend and she began to work alongside him at Rowlandson House, first as a pupil and then as a teacher (1909-14). Like Sickert, Gosse used photographs as a starting point for her pictures and her style and subject matter were greatly influenced by his. In 1914 Gosse was admitted to the Camden Town Group, formed by Sickert and his contemporaries, with whom she continued to work closely. Her work is represented in the collections of the Tate Gallery, National Portrait Gallery,Victoria and Albert Museum, Fitzwilliam Museum and elsewhere.