Bernard Cecil Gotch

Clarendon Building and Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford watercolour by Bernard Gotch

1939

Bernard Cecil Gotch was born on 17th May 1876 at Chilcombe near Winchester. Gotch studied and then taught at Winchester School of Art. Shortly after the beginning of the 20th century, he took a studio in London near the Tate. Specializing in architectural views, he had one-man shows at the Fine Art Society and Lincoln's Inn and also exhibited at the Royal Academy. His first notable commission was for the publisher Methuen, illustrating A Shepherd’s Life by W H Hudson. While in London, he was invited to illustrate a book on the Public Schools of England, which sadly was never completed but his completed watercolors were exhibited at the Fine Art Society in 1927. He lived in 1927 in Oxford, living on Cumnor Hill. From his studio on the first floor he painted commissions, making many watercolors of the interiors and exteriors of Oxford’s many buildings. He also exhibited at one-man shows, most notably in every Eights Week at Oriel College. Bernard Cecil Gotch died in 1963.