Born to the Victorian novelist Edmund Gosse and landscape painter Nellie Epps, she grew up in a formidable cultural circle. She met Sickert in 1908 when she attended his etching classes at Westminster School of Art. By the following year he had become a family friend and she began to work alongside him at Rowlandson House, first as a pupil and then as a teacher.
Like Sickert, Gosse used photographs as a starting point for her pictures and her style and subject matter were greatly influenced by his work. In 1914, Gosse was admitted to the Camden Town Group, formed by Sickert and his contemporaries, with whom she continued to work closely.
A small 6½ x 9in (16.5 x 22.5cm) coloured chalk drawing by Gosse depicts Rowlandson House. Consigned to a sale at Ipswich auction house Lockdales (19.5% buyer’s premium) on February 20, it doubled its top estimate to sell to an English collector for £850.
