Joseph Gott trained under the Neoclassical sculptor Joh🍨n Flaxman in London between 1798 and 1802. He moved to Rome in 1822, where he esta🦂blished a distinguished reputation as a sculptor. Gott rejected the austere classicism of his master, Flaxman, and his contemporary, John Gibson, in favour of an elegant romanticism, though with classical overtones.

Gott sculpted a few versions of Ruth in marble around 1841, as a companion to his figure of Rebecca. A slightly larger version of the present marble is in the York Art Gallery (op. cit. no. 47). Gott exhibited a Ruth at the Royal Academy exhibition in 1841, a marble which is now listed as 'untraced' (op. cit. no. G78); it is possible that this entry refeꦑrs to the present lot.

RELATED LITERATURE

T. Friedman and T. Stevens (eds.), Joseph Gott, 1786-1860, Sculptor, e🐬xh. cat. Leeds City Art Gallery and the Walker Art Gallery, Leeds and Liverpool, 1972, no. 47, p. 38; no. G78, p. 47