Joseph Gott

Born 1785
Died 8 January 1860

Active: 1798 - 1854

Country of birth: England

Country of death: Italy

Sculptor

Baptised 11 December 1785, London. He was the son of Benjamin Gott, a woollen manufacturer from Leeds, Yorkshire. Joseph was apprenticed to John Flaxman between 1798 and 1802, he then entered the Royal Academy Schools in March 1805 and won a silver medal the following year. Between 1820-48 Gott exhibited thirteen times at the Royal Academy, showing some thirty works in all.

In 1822 Gott was sent to Rome on a pension from the painter Sir Thomas Lawrence, who also introduced him to Antonio Canova. Initially Gott was very successful, receiving numerous commissions from English visitors to Rome, including the headstone for the poet John Keats in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome. But it was Gott's terracotta groups and sensitive sculptures of children and animals for which he became best known.

From 1838, Gott's practice went into decline following a cholera epidemic that stopped the flow of tourists. He also lost his children and his wife's memory was permanently damaged by the disease. Gott ceased making new work around 1845 and died in Rome in 1860.

Citing this record

'Joseph Gott', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib3_1202815313, accessed 20 Mar 2023]