Robert Charles Goff
Nationality: British
Date of birth: 1837
Place of birth: Ireland
Date of death: 1922
Category: etcher
Identity:
Robert Charles Goff was an etcher and painter.
Life:
R.C. Goff was born in Ireland and married twice. He lived in Hove in Sussex, Florence and Switzerland.
Goff was a professional soldier, active in the Crimean War, attaining the rank of Colonel before retiring from the Coldstream Guards in 1878. Goff learnt etching from a fellow officer and went on to exhibit at the RA from 1870-90. Goff also exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists in Suffolk Street between 1871 and 1885 and at the 2nd show of the Society of French painters-engravers in 1890.
His landscape views of England and continental Europe, including Venice and the English coast, established him internationally and he became an honourary member of the academies in Florence and Milan. Goff was also elected to the Royal Engravers and was a member of the Arts Club from 1871-91.
Goff's art has been compared to that of Whistler. However, in a letter to Whistler dated 14 December 1894, Edward Guthrie Kennedy (a dealer with H. Wunderlich & Co., New York) defends Goff's work after Whistler seems to have objected to his lithographs being hung near Goff's.
Bibliography:
Wood, Christopher, The Dictionary of Victorian Artists, 2nd ed., revised, Woodbridge, 1978; Hopkinson, Martin, No Day Without a Line: The History of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers 1880-1999, Oxford, 1999; http://artoftheprint.com (accessed 2003).
