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GIBSON, JOHN (1790-1866)

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 944 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GIBSON, See also:JOHN (1790-1866) , See also:English sculptor, was See also:born near See also:Conway in 1790, his See also:father being a See also:market gardener. To his See also:mother, whom he described as ruling his father and all the See also:family, he owed, like many other See also:great men, the See also:energy and determination which carried him over every obstacle. When he was nine years old the family were on the point of emigrating to See also:America, but Mrs Gibson's determination stopped this project on their arrival at See also:Liverpool, and there John was sent to school. The windows of the See also:print shops of Liverpool riveted his See also:attention, and, having no means to See also:purchase the commonest print, he acquired the See also:habit of committing to memory the outline of one figure after another, See also:drawing it on his return See also:home. Thus See also:early he formed the See also:system of observing, remembering and noting, sometimes even a See also:month later, scenes and momentary actions from nature. In this way he, by degrees, transferred from the See also:shop window to his See also:paper at home the See also:chief figures from See also:David's picture of See also:Napoleon See also:crossing the See also:Alps, which, by particular See also:request, he copied in See also:bright See also:colours as a See also:frontispiece to a little schoolfellow's new See also:prayer-See also:book, for sixpence. At fourteen years of See also:age Gibson was apprenticed to a See also:firm of cabinetmakers,—portrait and See also:miniature painters in Liverpool requiring a See also:premium which his father could not give. This employment so disgusted him that after a See also:year (being interesting and engaging then apparently as in after-See also:life) he persuaded his masters to See also:change his indentures, and bind him to the See also:wood-See also:carving with which their See also:furniture was ornamented. This satisfied him for another year, when an introduction to the foreman of some See also:marble See also:works, and the sight of a small See also:head of Bacchus, unsettled him again. He had here caught a glimpse of his true vocation, and in his leisure See also:hours began to See also:model with such success that his efforts found their way to the See also:notice of Mr See also:Francis, the proprietor of the marble works. The wood-carving now, in turn, becamehis aversion; and having in vain entreated his masters to set him See also:free, he instituted a strike. He was every See also:day duly at his See also:post, but did no See also:work.

Threats, and even a See also:

blow, moved him not. At length the offer of £70 from Francis for the rebellious apprentice was accepted, and Gibson found himself at last See also:bound to a See also:master for the See also:art of See also:sculpture. Francis paid the lad 6s. a See also:week, and received See also:good prices for his works,—sundry early works by the youthful sculptor, which exist in Liverpool and the neighbourhood, going by the name of Francis to this day. It was while thus apprenticed that Gibson attracted the notice of See also:William See also:Roscoe, the historian. For him Gibson executed a basso rilievo in terra-See also:cotta, now in the Liverpool museum. Roscoe opened to the sculptor the treasures of his library at Allerton, by which he became acquainted with the designs of the great See also:Italian masters. A See also:cartoon of the Fall of the Angels marked. this See also:period,—now also in the Liverpool museum. We must pass over his studies in See also:anatomy, pursued gratuitously by the kindness of a medical See also:man, and his introductions to families of refinement and culture in Liverpool. Roscoe was an excellent See also:guide to the See also:young aspirant, pointing to the Greeks as the only examples for a sculptor. Gibson here found his true vocation. A basso rilievo of See also:Psyche carried by the Zephyrs was the result. He sent it to the Royal See also:Academy, where See also:Flaxman, recognizing its merits, gave it an excellent See also:place.

Again he became unsettled. The ardent young See also:

breast panted for " the great university of Art "—See also:Rome; and the first step to the desired See also:goal was to See also:London. Here he stood between the opposite See also:advice and See also:influence of Flaxman and See also:Chantrey—the one urging him to Rome as the highest school of sculpture in the See also:world, the other maintaining that London could do as much for him. It is not difficult to guess which was Gibson's choice. He arrived in Rome in See also:October 1817, at a comparatively See also:late age for a first visit. There he immediately experienced the See also:charm and goodness of the true Italian See also:character in the See also:person of See also:Canova, to whom he had introductions,—the Venetian putting not only his experience in art but his See also:purse at the English student's service. Up to this See also:time, though his designs show a See also:fire and See also:power of See also: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 rules and technicalities, in which the merest tyro was before him. Canova introduced him into the Academy supported by See also:Austria, and, as is natural with a mind like Gibson's, the first sense of his deficiencies in See also:common matters of practice was depressing to him. He saw Italian youths already excelling, as they all do, in the drawing of the figure. But the tables were soon turned. His first work in marble—a " Sleeping Shepherd " modelled from a beautiful Italian boy—has qualities of the highest See also:order.

Gibson was soon launched, and distinguished patrons, first sent by Canova, made their way to his studio in the Via Fontanella. His aim, from the first day that he See also:

felt the power of the See also:antique, was purity of character and beauty of See also:form. He very seldom declined into the prettiness of Canova, and if he did not often approach the masculine strength which redeems the faults of See also:Thorwaldsen, he more than once surpassed him even in that quality. We allude specially to his " See also:Hunter and See also:Dog," and to the See also:grand promise of his " See also:Theseus and Robber," which take See also:rank as the highest productions of See also:modern sculpture. He was essentially classic in feeling and aim, but here the habit of observation we have mentioned enabled him to snatch a See also:grace beyond the reach of a See also:mere imitator. His subjects were gleaned from the free actions of the splendid Italian See also:people noticed in his walks, and afterwards baptized with such mythological names as best fitted them. Thus a girl kissing a See also:child, with a sudden wring of the figure, over her See also:shoulder, became a " Nymph and See also:Cupid "; a woman helping her child with his See also:foot on her See also:hand on to her See also:lap, a " Bacchante and Faun "; his " See also:Amazon thrown from her See also:Horse," one of his most See also:original productions, was taken from an See also:accident he witnessed to a See also:female rider in a See also:circus; and the " Hunter holding in his Dog " was also the result of a See also:street See also:scene. The prominence he gave among his favourite subjects to the little See also:god " of soft tribulations" was no less owing to his facilities for observing the all but naked Italian See also:children, in the hot summers he spent in Rome. 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—the See also:group of See also:Queen See also:Victoria supported by See also:Justice and Clemency, in the Houses of See also:Parliament—was his finest work in the See also:round. Of See also:noble character also in See also:execution and expression of thought is the statue of See also:Huskisson with the bared See also:arm; and no less, in effect of aristocratic ease and refinement, the seated figure of See also:Dudley See also:North. But great as he was in the round, Gibson's chief excellence See also:lay in basso rilievo, and in this less-disputed See also:sphere he obtained his greatest triumphs.

His thorough knowledge of the horse, and his See also:

constant study of the See also:Elgin See also:marbles—casts of which are in Rome—resulted in the two matchless See also:bassi rilievi, the See also:size of life, which belong to See also:Lord See also:Fitzwilliam—the " Hours leading the Horses of the See also:Sun," and " See also:Phaethon See also:driving the See also:Chariot of the Sun." Most of his monumental works are also in basso rilievo. Some of these are of a truly refined and pathetic character, such as the See also:monument to the countess of See also:Leicester, that to his friend Mrs Huskisson in See also:Chichester See also:cathedral, and that of the See also:Bonomi children. See also:Passion, either indulged or repressed, was the natural impulse of his art: repressed as in the " Hours leading the Horses of the Sun," and as in the " Hunter and Dog "; indulged as in the See also:meeting of See also:Hero and Leander, a drawing executed before he See also:left See also:England. Gibson was the first to intro-duce See also: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-called " tinted " See also:Venus, and in the " Cupid tormenting the Soul," in the Holford collection. Gibson's individuality was too strongly marked to be affected by any outward circumstances. In all worldly affairs and business of daily life he was See also:simple and guileless in the extreme; but he was resolute in matters of principle, determined to walk straight at any cost of See also:personal See also:advantage. Unlike most artists, he was neither See also:nervous nor irritable in temperament. It was said of him that he made the See also:heathen See also:mythology his See also:religion; and indeed in serenity of nature, feeling for the beautiful, and a certain See also:philosophy of mind, he may be accepted as a type of what a pure-minded See also:Greek See also:pagan, in the See also:zenith of Greek art, may have been. Gibson was elected R.A. in 1836, and bequeathed all his See also:property and the contents of his studio to the Royal Academy, where his marbles and casts are open to the public. He died at Rome on the 27th of See also:January 1866. The letters between Gibson and Mrs See also:Henry See also:Sandbach, grand-daughter of Mr Roscoe, and a See also:sketch of his life that See also:lady induced him to write, furnish the chief materials for his See also:biography. See his Life, edited by Lady See also:Eastlake.

(E.

End of Article: GIBSON, JOHN (1790-1866)

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