Details of Sculptor

Surname

Gibson

Alternative Surname

First Name

John RA

Initial of Surname

G

Year of Birth/Baptism

1790

Flourished

Year of Death

1866

Biographical Details

John Gibson trained under Antonio Canova and Bertel Thorvaldsen in Rome, where he spent most of his life and became a central figure in the international artistic community. He was the most important British neoclassical sculptor of the mid-19th century but is now chiefly remembered for his controversial polychrome sculpture.
He was born near Conway in North Wales, the son of a market gardener, William Gibson, who moved with his family to Liverpool in 1799. Two of his brothers, Solomon Gibson and Benjamin Gibson also became sculptors. John showed an interest in art from an early age and later recalled how he had made copies of the images displayed in print shop windows and was beaten at school for drawing during lessons. He received early encouragement from his mother and from John Turmeau, a miniature painter and dealer in prints and artists’ materials, who lent him drawings and casts to copy.
In 1804 Gibson began his apprenticeship as a cabinet-maker in the Liverpool business of Southwell and Wilson but he found this occupation uncongenial and the terms of his apprenticeship were changed so that he could instead work as a wood-carver, making decorative mouldings for furniture. He was later introduced to the sculptor, F A Legé, who was working for Samuel and Thomas Franceys, the Liverpool carvers, and Gibson made copies of some of Legé’s models, including a small head of Bacchus (76). The Franceys partners were sufficiently impressed by these early efforts to pay Gibson’s employers £70 to cancel his indentures so that he could work for them. The monument to Henry Blundell (1), signed by Franceys, is an example of Gibson’s early work, executed whilst he was employed by the firm.
Gibson’s first patron was Willliam Roscoe, the Liverpool banker and connoisseur. Roscoe commissioned a narrative relief of Alexander the Great for his library at Allerton Hall (130). The source was an engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi, after a fresco by Raphael in the Vatican. Gibson frequently visited Allerton to study Roscoe’s fine collection of old master drawings and particularly admired Michelangelo, whose influence is evident in a drawing, The fall of Satan and the rebel angels, executed c1811 (Walker, Liverpool). Roscoe advised him however that as a sculptor he should emulate the purity and simplicity seen to be the essence of ancient Greek art and Gibson turned his attention to casts and prints from classical sources. He studied designs for sculpture after the antique by John Flaxman RA and began to think of travelling to Rome. During this period Gibson also attended anatomy classes, given by Dr Vose, the surgeon, where he watched the dissection of human bodies. In order to continue these studies more informally after the doctor's lecture season, Gibson and his fellow students stole corpses from a city graveyard.
He exhibited drawings and models at the Liverpool Academy from 1810 and in 1816 showed a relief of Psyche carried by zephyrs at the Royal Academy (133). In 1817 he completed his apprenticeship, and as opportunities for talented artists in Liverpool were limited, went to London, where he met a number of influential artists including Henri Fuseli, William Blake, Benjamin West, Joseph Nollekens RA and also James Christie the Younger, the auctioneer. He was introduced to Flaxman, who praised his work and encouraged him to pursue his plans to go to Rome. In 1816 George Watson Taylor, of Erlestoke Park, a friend of the Prince Regent, commissioned busts of himself, his wife and children (80), together with one of William Roscoe (82).
Gibson arrived in Rome on 20 October 1817. He may have worked briefly under Nollekens, since a Theseus and centaur modelled by ‘Gibson in Mr Nollikens’s study’ appeared in the sale of Nollekens’s effects held at Christie’s in 1823 (166). Gibson was certainly introduced to Canova, who received him kindly and offered to support him. He studied modelling and life drawing in Canova’s studio, at Canova’s Academy and at the Academy of St Luke. He also received instruction from Thorvaldsen and studied Greek and Graeco-Roman sculpture. By 1821 Gibson had established his own studio in the Via Fontanella, off the Via Babuino. His first original work modelled in Rome was The Sleeping shepherd boy (40), a subject he re-interpreted several times in marble. In 1819 the 6th Duke of Devonshire commissioned a group of Mars restrained by Cupid (41). Gibson was so inexperienced that he agreed to a price of £500 for the work, which cost him him £520 to execute. Another important early work was the group of Psyche borne by Zephyrs for the connoisseur Sir George Beaumont (44).
By the 1830s Gibson was a well-established sculptor and the leader of a group of English sculptors working in Rome which included Richard James Wyatt, Lawrence Macdonald and Joseph Gott. Some of his friends suggested that he should return to London, where they felt that he could earn larger sums for his work. He prefered however to remain in Rome, making only occasional summer visits to England and wrote euphorically ‘I thank God for every morning that opens my eyes in Rome’ (Gunnis 1968, 171). Gibson particularly valued the easy, informal communication between artists working in the city and thought that in England he would be less able to concentrate on ‘ideal’ works. Notwithstanding his absence he was able to secure and grow a London reputation, owing to the influence of powerful friends, such as Sir Charles Eastlake. On 3 November 1833 he was elected an associate and on 10 February 1836 a full member of the Royal Academy, who thanks to Eastlake’s intervention waived the British residence criteria. Gibson submitted a version of Narcissus as his diploma work (47). He won numerous commissions from English collectors visiting Rome, including several wealthy industrialists and merchants from Liverpool. Henry Sandbach, a shipping heir, and his wife Margaret, a grand-daughter of William Roscoe, bought many of his works, including Hunter and dog (57) and Aurora (62) for Hafodunos Hall, the gothic revival mansion they had built in North Wales. He also provided Tommaso and Luigi Saulini, the Italian cameo carvers, with designs.
Throughout his career Gibson worked in a neo-classical style strongly influenced by Canova and Thorvaldsen and by the writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann. He aimed to achieve ‘the sublime and the purest beauty’ in his sculpture through study of the human form perfected to the standards of classical sculpture. Gibson felt the sculptor’s role was to select and combine the most beautiful parts of nature to create a harmonious whole, which would delight and elevate the viewer. He later described his use of a number of male and female models for a figure of Bacchus (67). Gibson believed that deviation from the principles of classical art for the sake of novelty could only produce inferior sculpture. He specifically condemned the use of contemporary dress, writing ‘The human figure concealed under a frock-coat and trousers is not a fit subject for sculpture’ (Matthews 1911, 100). Certain critics mocked him for depicting men of his day in classical draperies: the statue of Sir Robert Peel in Westminster Abbey (27) was dismissed by Palgrave as ‘Gibson’s tasteless and unresembling Peel in a toga’ (Palgrave 1866, 333). Narcissus is typical of Gibson’s mature work, for it combines a classical allegory with an observed genre scene. Gibson later revealed that the statue was inspired by the sight of a boy sitting on the edge of a fountain during his morning walk along the Monte Pinciano.
Gibson’s most controversial work was the Tinted Venus (66), commissioned by a Liverpool manufacturer, Robert Preston, and his wife in 1851. Gibson’s use of colour was prompted by classical Greek antecedents, discussed in the influential writings of Quatremère de Quincy and other scholars. He also admired contemporary polychrome architectural decoration by Leo von Klenze in Munich. Gibson applied colour to several works, including Love cherishing the soul, while preparing to torment it (55), his first statue of Queen Victoria (65) and Pandora (64) but he developed the idea to its fullest extent with the Tinted Venus, which he considered his finest work. He described it as ‘the most carefully executed work I ever executed’ adding ‘I tinted the flesh like warm ivory - scarcely red - the eyes blue, the hair blonde, and the net which contains the hair golden’ (Eastlake 1870, 211). He became so attached to the finished statue that he kept it in his studio for 4 years in spite of Mrs Preston’s repeated protests. The work caused consternation when it was displayed in a temple designed by Owen Jones, at the 1862 International Exhibition. Many found it too life-like and thought that the use of colour compromised the icy purity that was deemed necessary for a nude statue to avoid indecency.
Gibson executed a number of royal portraits, including the standing figure of Queen Victoria for Buckingham Palace (60), later replicated for Osborne, and another seated one, with supporting figures of Justice and Clemency, for the Palace of Westminster (65). He carved only a few public statues, including the William Huskisson (61) and George Stephenson for Liverpool (63), generally preferring to avoid commissions which would take him away from Rome for lengthy periods. Gibson was invited to compete against EH Baily, JH Foley and Carlo, Baron Marochetti in the first, ill-fated, competition for the Wellington Monument for St Paul’s Cathedral, but declined to do so. He did, however, submit a model for the second competition (33) which was unsuccessful. After Prince Albert’s death in 1861 the Queen sought Gibson’s advice on the form her husband’s memorial should take and later asked him to carve one of the groups. He demurred on the grounds that after so many years in Rome, returning to the cold climate of England might be harmful to his health.
Gibson assisted a number of younger sculptors in Rome including William Theed II, Richard Westmacott III, Alfred Gatley, Henry Timbrell, William Calder Marshall, Mary Thornycroft, George Gamon Adams, John Hogan and Benjamin Edward Spence, and Benjamin Gibson worked in his studio from 1837 until his death in 1851. Lady Eastlake nonetheless maintained that his only real pupil was the American sculptor, Harriet Hosmer. Gibson received many honours in recognition of his achievement, including the légion d'honneur, awarded by the French government in 1864. A statue of Gibson (now destroyed) was erected at the Glyptothek in Munich probably in 1859.
Gibson’s biographers represent him as an unworldly and impractical man who led a happy and peaceful life devoted to his art. Harriet Hosmer remarked, ‘He is a god in his studio, but God help him when he is out of it’ (Eastlake 1870, 231). However, he clearly had some business acumen as he ran a busy workshop, amassed a large fortune and gave financial support to his brother Solomon. Gibson never married, but he formed deep and lasting friendships with a number of women, including Margaret Sandbach, his correspondent over many years. He died in Rome on 27 January 1866 and was buried in the Protestant Cemetery, where a monument was erected with a portrait medallion by the Italian sculptor L Minghini. He bequeathed most of the models and unfinished works in his studio and his fortune of £32,000 to the RA, with the intention that this should finance a regular display of his work as an aid to young artists. A room dedicated to the display of his work was created in Burlington House (now the library). He also left an account of his life, in the form of notes and letters, which was edited and published by Lady Eastlake in 1870 and, in a new edition, by Thomas Matthews in 1911.
EH
Literary References: AU, 1839, 106; Builder, 1847, 223, 540; 1866, 76, 104, 132, 925; AJ, 1853, 63-4; 1857, 273-5; 1866, 90-1, 113-5; ILN 48, 1866, 137, 159-61; Palgrave 1866, 39, 80-1, 222, 249, 294; Eastlake 1870, passim; Hall II, 1883, 237; DNB XXI, 1890, 278-281; Matthews 1911, passim; Gunnis 1968, 171-3; Physick 1969, 41-2, 180; Physick 1970, 21-3, 25, 28, 36n, 41n, 166-7; Cooper 1971, 84-92; Morris 1971, 397-9; Neoclassicism 1972, 239-40; Fletcher 1972, 336-40; JKB 1972 (3), 325-7, 329, 330, 331; Brumbaugh 1973, 122-7; Ormond 1973, 185-8; Wilton 1973, 118-19; Fletcher 1974, 2-5; Carr 1975, 170-81; Penny 1977 (1), passim; Fletcher 1977, 60-2; Darby 1981, 37-53; Read 1982, passim; Read 1985, 59-60, 64; Whinney 1988, 422; Curtis 1989, passim; RG/JP, 4, 589-98; Blühm 1996, passim; Grove 12, 1996, 597-9 (Greenwood); Morris and Roberts 1998, 254; Bilbey 2002, 271-74; ODNB (Greenwood); McGuigan 2014, 2; Frasca-Rath and Wickham 2016; Avery-Quash 2018
Archival References: RA/GA, 1833, 1836, 1866
Additional MS sources: Gibson Albums; Gibson Letters; Gibson Papers (1); Gibson Papers (2); Gibson/Blair; Gibson/Hall; Gibson/Hall; Gibson/Horner; Gibson/Lawrence; Gibson/Lyttleton; Gibson/Mozley; Gibson/Rogers; Gibson/Sandbach; Gibson/Shaw; Gibson/Thomas; Gibson/Thrupp; Menai Francis Essay; Penry Williams Letters; Tinted Venus Papers
Will: PPR, with three codicils, 3 May 1866, fol 309, effects under £40,000
Miscellaneous drawings: Nearly 200 drawings, RA (Gibson Bequest), several repr in Frasca-Rath and Wickham 2016; The fall of Satan and the rebel angels, c1811, pen and wash and pencil, Walker; study of a rebel angel, c1811, pen and ink and pencil, BM, PDB, 1872-10-12-3266; Christ blessing the little children, BM, PDB, 1885,0509.1641; Psyche borne by zephyrs, BM, PDB, 1858,1009.361; a bacchanal, after an antique relief, BM PDB 1875,0814.1172; Woman and child, BM, PDB, 1885,0711.265; about 60 life drawings, studies after the antique and designs for monuments, 1810-1817, VAM, P&D. PD 156 and PD 156A, inv D.1333-1898, D.1335-1889, E.645-1948
Selected portraits of the sculptor: John Partridge, 1825, pencil on paper, NPG 3944(32); A Geddes, 1830, painting, Walker; William Brockedon, 1844, chalk on paper, NPG 2515(96); J Graham-Gilbert, 1847, painting, NGS (smaller replica NMW); Sir Edwin Landseer, c1850, painting, RA 03/1235 (replica, Walker), colour repr Frasca-Rath and Wickham 2016, 31); William Theed the Younger, 1852, bust, Conway parish church, another c 1852 RA 03/3725, colour repr Frasca-Rath and Wickham 2016, 31, another, marble, c1868, NPG 1795; R Lehmann, 1853, drawing, BM, PDB, 1906, 0419.14; Margaret Sarah Carpenter, 1857, oil on canvas, NPG 232; Field Talfourd, 1859, coloured chalks on buff paper, BM, PDB, 1909, 0723.3; Sir George Scharf, 1860, drawing, NPG 6050; unknown artist, c1860, pencil on paper, NPG 1370 (another identical drawing BM); Nadar (Gaspard Félix Tournachon), c1862, salt print, NPG P227; John Adams Acton, marble bust, 1862, Walker, Liverpool, another, 1862, RA, 03/1669; Sir W Boxall, 1864, painting, RA 03/443; Isabel Cholmeley, painted plaster bust, 1863, RA 03/1692; Emil Lowenthal, oil on canvas, 1864, Accademia di San Luca (repr Frasca-Rath and Wickham 2016, 37),J S Wyon, 1875, bronze medal, issued by the Art Union of London, NPG D2918; Harriet Hosmer, nd, marble medallion, NPG 5342 (other versions at Watertown Free Public Library, Mass, USA; anon, nd, silhouette, SNPG; Henry Meyer, nd, pencil touched with watercolour, BM, PDB, 1871, 0812.1807; Penry Williams, oil on canvas, version at NMW, Cardiff (14102, colour repr Frasca-Rath and Wickham 2016, p6); marble bust, nd, Stanford Hall, Northants