Camaraderie and Classicism
Tomasso Brothers Fine Art will be presenting works by Joseph Gott and William Etty, two of Yorkshire’s finest neoclassical artists, shown together for the first time at London Art Week Winter 2017.
Tomasso Brothers Fine Art continues its homage to British art for the new winter edition of London Art Week, opening on 30 November 2017 and running 1–8 December 2017. The gallery’s exhibition, entitled ‘Camaraderie and Classicism’, centres on the work of sculptor Joseph Gott (1786-1860) and painter William Etty R.A. (1787-1849), presented together for the first time. It follows on from the success of ‘Canova and his Legacy’, Tomasso Brothers’ summer 2017 London Art Week exhibition featuring prominent British sculptors working in Rome during and after the reign of Antonio Canova (1757–1822).
Gott and Etty, both from the English county of Yorkshire, were two of the finest British artists of the first half of the nineteenth century, bound as much by their shared neoclassical principles, as they were by their friendship. They most likely first became acquainted whilst studying in London at the Royal Academy Schools, where Gott entered in 1805, followed by Etty two years later. Both artists had close ties with the Academy’s influential president Sir Thomas Lawrence, who introduced Gott to Antonio Canova and in whose workshop Etty was apprenticed for a year.
In the early 1820s Gott and Etty travelled to Italy, residing in Rome at the same time, which proved a seminal turning point in the career of both. As Gott perfected his carving technique under Canova, Etty developed a vibrant brushstroke inspired by Titian and Rubens, and as the former sculpted in marble effigies of resplendent candour, the latter painted on canvas figures of vibrant colorito. In January 1824 Etty returned to London. Gott remained in Rome for the rest of his life. The paths of their work, however, would cross again at the Royal Academy, where both artists exhibited regularly throughout their careers.
The artistic vocabularies of Gott and Etty abounded with classical references, in the form of a deeprooted reverence for the finest examples of sculpture surviving from antiquity and the greatest old master painters respectively, always underpinned by the dedicated academic study of the male and female nude. Tomasso Brothers’ exhibition and catalogue aim to show this and how, in many ways, the works of both artists perfectly encapsulate the mood of the age.
The display at Tomasso Brothers will include masterfully carved marbles and beautiful small-scale terracotta sculptures by Gott, alongside deliciously sensual oils by Etty, which originate primarily from the private collection of Dino and Raffaello Tomasso, who have carefully sought out and assembled works by both artists over the course of many years.
The exhibition previews on 30th November and runs until 8th December, and has been curated to coincide with the gallery’s participation in the much anticipated new winter edition of London Art Week.