Robert Goff West Pier, c1900, etching
A rare opportunity to see about 50 works by the Hove-based etcher Robert Charles Goff (1837-1922), who was one of the first etchers in Britain to be influenced by J.A.M. Whistler and the Etching Revival.
On display are works not displayed since 1920's including Edwardian views of Brighton, Hove and Sussex, Industrial London, and striking images from his travels in other parts of Britain, Italy, Egypt and Japan.
Goff was a wealthy and much-travelled retired Army colonel, with a strong sense of civic duty. He was an active figure in Brighton and Hove’s arts scene, and even kept on his studio in Holland Road after he left his Adelaide Crescent home in Hove to live abroad in 1903.
Despite having had no professional training Goff’s etchings are of great technical quality and artistic strength. Contemporary art critics were quick to draw comparisons with James McNeill Whistler, who earlier had helped to revolutionise and popularise the art of etching.
As well as doing works of social historical interest, Goff loved the sea, and his views of Brighton, Hove and Shoreham feature dramatic waves and some of the city’s lost buildings and piers.