THOMAS COOPER GOTCH, R.B.A., R.I. (1854-1931)

Clothilde (circa 474-545), was the wife of Clovis I, founder of the Merovingian dynasty, and first king of what would later become France. She converted her husband to Christianity and is venerated as a saint. Gotch would have become familiar with the often-told story of Clovis and Clothilde while he was a student in Paris. He established his reputation through painting symbolic female figures, distinctively dressed, each adopting a pose in the manner of early Renaissance art.