Thomas Cooper Gotch was an idealist and he aspired to be a poet.His idealism and his poetry influenced his mature perspective on art so that he could claim that he went beyond literal accuracy to arrive at something that could only be called truth because it was beauty.His earlier perspective was influenced by his French training,when he sought to make paintings that were full of air and space,sober in colour,full of detail by implication rather than by explanation,'as we see things,and not as they might be imagined to be by one who does not use his eye,' he said.These two positions neatly divide Tom Gotch's work into paintings with a literary or 'Newlyn' theme,mainly painted before the 1890s,and those with a more 'symbolist' intention that were painted after this date.

PREFACE

1 FULL CIRCLE

2 THE EARLY YEARS

3 STUDENT DAYS

4 NEWLYN-PARIS-AUSTRALIA

5 THE NEW ENGLISH ART CLUB

6 THE MALTHOUSEYEARS

7 IMAGINATIVE SYMBOLISM

8 THE YEARS AT SHOTTERMILL

9 TREWARVENETH INTERVAL

10 THE FINAL DECADES

SOURCES

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

CHRONOLOGY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX