Laura Sylvia Gosse was perhaps the most important of the 'Sickert's Girls', women artists who worked closely with Walter Sickert, and were inspired by his example. She was the youngest daughter of Sir Edmund Gosse, the prominent man of letters, and of Nellie Epps, the landscape painter. As a result, she grew up in a formidable cultural circle, which included Robert Browning, Thomas Hardy and Henry James.

Her interest in painting developed while she was at school in France, and she consequently studied at St John's Wood School of Art and the Royal Academy Schools (1903-6). However, she was allowed to become a professional artist only through the intervention of Sickert. She met him 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 (1909-14). Gradually her work showed the beneficial influence of his subject matter and technique. Her friendship with Sickert continued until his death in 1942, and was, at times, particularly supportive. She looked after him following the death of his second wife (1920), and later organised a 'Sickert Fund' to free the artist from financial worries (1934).

Gosse was a leading exhibitor at some of the most forward looking of societies, including the London Group, which she helped to found in 1913. She was also elected to the membership of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers , the Royal Society of British Artists, and the Society of Women Artists (1935). The first of several solo shows was held at the Carfax Gallery in 1916; and the last at the Beaux Arts Gallery in 1937. Following her move from London to Ore, in Sussex, in 1951, Gosse continued to paint for a further decade.