The Heir to all the Ages

Thomas Cooper Gotch (1854-1931)

1900

Oil on canvas

59 1/2 x 31 inches

Exhibited Royal Academy, 1897, no. 315

"Gotch is one of the very few English painters of the 19th century whose work can genuinely be described as symbolist. He painted many pictures of children, often his own family, in which the idea of childhood is treated as something mystical, almost holy. This is certainly evident in the title, and the treatment of this picture; also in 'The Child Enthroned' illustrated in Wood's Dictionary of Victorian Painters, p. 608. In both these pictures we can see the influence of Italian altarpieces, which Gotch admired on his trips to Italy." — Christopher Wood