John Gibson | |
|---|---|
.jpg) John Gibson by Margaret Sarah Carpenter | |
| Born | (1790-06-19)19 June 1790 Conwy, Wales |
| Died | 27 January 1866(1866-01-27) (aged 75) Rome, Italy |
| Nationality | Welsh |
| Known for | Sculpture |
| Notable work | Queen Victoria Supported by Justice and Clemency (1855);Hunter and Dog (1838) |
John GibsonRA (19 June 1790 – 27 January 1866) was aWelshneoclassical sculptor who studied in Rome underCanova. He excelled chiefly inbas-relief, notably the two life-size worksThe Hours Leading the Horses of the Sun andPhaethon Driving the Chariot of the Sun, but was also proficient in monumental and portrait statuary. He is famous for his statues of SirRobert Peel (Westminster Abbey),William Huskisson (St George's Square) andQueen Victoria (Houses of Parliament).[1][2][3] Gibson was elected a Royal Academician in 1836, and left the contents of his studio to theRoyal Academy, where many of his marbles and casts are currently on display.
Gibson was born nearConwy,Wales, where his father was a market gardener. When he was nine years old the family were on the point of emigrating toAmerica, but his mother put a stop to this plan on their arrival atLiverpool, where they settled, and where Gibson was sent to school. He became fascinated by the displays in the windows of the city's print shops.[4] The painter and printsellerJohn Turmeau lent him some drawings and plaster casts to copy.[5]
At the age of fourteen, Gibson was apprenticed to a firm of cabinet-makers. He soon took a violent dislike to this work, however, and eventually managed to have his articles bought out by the monumental masons Samuel and Thomas Franceys.[4] It was while apprenticed to the Franceys brothers that Gibson came to the attention of the historianWilliam Roscoe, for whom he executed aterracottabas-relief now in the Liverpool museum. Roscoe gave Gibson access to his library atAllerton, by which means he became acquainted with the designs of the great Italian masters.[4]
Acartoon (now also in the Liverpool museum) ofThe Fall of the Angels marked this period. He studiedanatomy, his lessons provided gratuitously by a medical man, and gained introductions to families of refinement and culture in Liverpool. Roscoe was an excellent guide to his protégée, pointing to theGreeks as the only examples for a sculptor. Gibson here found his true vocation. Abasso rilievo ofPsyche Carried by theZephyrs was the result. He sent it to theRoyal Academy, whereJohn Flaxman, recognizing its merits, gave it an excellent place. Again he became unsettled. He conceived a wish to further his artistic education in Rome, and the first step to this goal went to go toLondon; there he received conflicting advice from Flaxman and fromFrancis Legatt Chantrey, the former urging him go to Rome as the highest school of sculpture in the world, the latter maintaining that London could do as much for him.[4]
Gibson arrived in Rome in October 1817, at a comparatively late age for a first visit. There he was generously received byAntonio Canova, to whom he had introductions, theVenetian sculptor putting not only his experience in art but his purse at the English student's service. Up to this time, though his designs show a fire and power of imagination in which no teaching is missed, Gibson had had no instruction, and had studied at no academy. In Rome he first became acquainted with the rules and technicalities of art. Canova introduced him into the academy supported by Austria, and the first sense of his deficiencies in common matters of practice was depressing to him. He saw Italian youths already excelling in the drawing of the figure. But the tables were soon turned.[4] His first work in marble,Sleeping Shepherd Boy, was completed in 1824.[6]
Gibson was soon launched, and distinguished patrons, initially sent by Canova, made their way to his studio in theVia Fontanella. His aim was always purity of character and beauty of form. He rarely declined into the prettiness of Canova, and if he did not often approach the masculine strength ofBertel Thorvaldsen, he more than once surpassed him even in that quality. He was essentially classic in feeling and aim, but here his habit of observation enabled him to achieve a grace beyond the reach of a mere imitator. His subjects were gleaned from the free actions of the Italian people noticed on his walks, and afterwards given such mythological names as best fitted them. Thus a girl kissing a child over her shoulder became aNymph andCupid; a woman helping her child with his foot on her hand on to her lap, aBacchante andFaun; hisAmazon Thrown from Her Horse, one of his most original productions, was taken from an accident he witnessed to a female rider in a circus; andHunter and Dog was also the result of a street scene.[4]
Throughout most of his time in Rome Gibson had an alleged relationship with the Welsh artistPenry Williams.[7]
Gibson was elected R.A. in 1836, and bequeathed all his property and the contents of his studio to theRoyal Academy, where his marbles and casts are open to the public as of 2005[update]. He died at Rome on 7 January 1866 and was buried in theProtestant Cemetery there.
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In monumental and portrait statues for public places, necessarily represented in postures of dignity and repose, Gibson was very happy. His largest effort of this class was the group showingQueen Victoria Supported by Justice and Clemency, in theHouses of Parliament, his finest work in the round. Of noble character also in execution and expression of thought is the statue ofWilliam Huskisson with the bared arm; and no less, in effect of aristocratic ease and refinement, the seated figure ofDudley North.[4]
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Gibson's chief excellence, however, lay in basso rilievo. His thorough knowledge of thehorse, and his constant study of theElgin Marbles,casts of which are in Rome, resulted in the twobassi rilievi, the size of life, which belonged toLord Fitzwilliam:The Hours Leading the Horses of the Sun, andPhaethon Driving the Chariot of the Sun. Most of his memorial works are also in basso rilievo. Some of these are of a truly refined and pathetic character, such as the monument to theCountess of Leicester, wife ofThomas Coke, the 1st Earl, or that to his friend Mrs Huskisson inChichester Cathedral, and that of the Bonomi children. Passion, either indulged or repressed, was the natural impulse of his art: repressed as in theHours Leading the Horses of the Sun, and as in theHunter and Dog; indulged as in the meeting of Hero and Leander, a drawing executed before he left England. Gibson was the first to introduce colour on his statues, first as a mere border to the drapery of a portrait statue of the queen, and by degrees extended to the entire flesh, as in his so-calledTintedVenus and inLove Tormenting the Soul, both now in theWalker Art Gallery in Liverpool.[4]
In all worldly affairs and the business of daily life he was simple and guileless in the extreme; but was resolute in matters of principle. He was visited byWilliam Dean Howells in Naples who described him as "dressed with extraordinary slovenliness and indifference to clothes, had no collar, I think, and evidently did not know what he had one. Everything about him bespoke the utmost unconsciousness and democratic plainness of life."[4]
The letters between Gibson andMargaret Sandbach, granddaughter ofWilliam Roscoe, and a sketch of his life that lady induced him to write, furnish the chief materials for his biography. See hisLife, edited byLady Eastlake.
Gibson provided almost all the illustrations for:
Material by him is incorporated in:
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Gibson, John".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 11 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 943–944.
