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.
Works
Dates are usually the year a work was exhibited so may differ from date of production.
New entries have been made each time a work was exhibited. Click here for more information.
Susannan alarmed at the Bath - in Marble
1854
Spaniel playing with a Kitten, over a Basket of Fruit
1854
Love and Innocence
1854
Hindu Girl supplicating her Deity for success in her endeavour to prove if her absent lover is safe
1854
Italian Greyhound playing with a Puppy
1854
Locations
Address Rome | View on map
1854 (Circa)
Studio located at 155 via Babuino Rome | View on map
1828 - 1860
Exhibitions, Meetings, Awards and other Events
Exhibited at Royal Hibernian Academy Annual Exhibition, 1851
'Italian Greyhound playing with a Puppy'
Exhibited at Royal Hibernian Academy Annual Exhibition, 1854
Multiple works
Sources
'Memorial sculpture in the Protestant Cemetery at Rome: New discoveries and an inventory of identified works'
2022
p. 196 and p. 210
A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain, 1660-1851
2009
pp. 541-7
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
2004
Terry Friedman, ‘Gott, Joseph (1785–1860)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/11128, accessed 24 Dec 2010]
The Exhibition of the Royal Hibernian Academy, 1854 RHA Annual Exhibition Catalogues
1854
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 04 Oct 2023]
