97 



GIBSON, JOHN, R.A. 



GIBSON, JOHN, R.A. 



93 



mind ; but he did not at that period of his life confine himself to 

 historical literature, for in 1693 he produced an edition of ' Quintilian,' 

 which is highly esteemed. 



The proof of industry and learning which these works afforded 

 introduced him to the notice and favour of Tenison, who in 1694 

 succeeded Tillotson as archbishop of Canterbury. He was made 

 domestic chaplain to the archbishop, and rector of the parish of 

 Lambeth. He was also made archdeacon of Surrey. 



In the reigns of King William and Queen Anne there was a warm 

 controversy concerning the nature and authority of the convocation 

 of the clergy. In this controversy Dr. Gibson took a very active part, 

 defending the power of that assembly, in which his historical know- 

 ledge was made to bear powerfully on the question. This led to the 

 publication which is regarded as his great work, the ' Codex Juris 

 Ecclesiastic! Anglican!,' 2 vols. fol., 1713, in which he has collected the 

 statutes, constitutions, canons, nfbrics, and articles of the Church of 

 England, and digested them methodically under proper heads, with 

 suitable commentaries, prefaces, and appendices, forming together a 

 work which is indispensable to the studies of those who desire to 

 understand thoroughly the history of the English Church. It was 

 reprinted at Oxford in 1761. 



In 1715 Dr. Gibson was promoted to the bishopric of Lincoln, and 

 in 1723 translated to London. Wake, the archbishop of Canterbury, 

 was at that time in an infirm state of health, and so continued for 

 some years, during which period the Bishop of London was the person 

 chiefly consulted oy the court in affairs belonging to the Church. 



Bishop Gibson was ever a strenuous defender of the rights of the 

 Church, considered as a political community ; but he was of what is 

 called the liberal school in respect of doctrines, and he warmly 

 approved of tlie liberty which the law had granted in his time to 

 persons not conforming to the Church, to meet together publicly for 

 social worship in whatever way and on whatever principles they might 

 themselves approve. He published a large collection of treatises which 

 had been written by divines in the English Church against popery, 

 forming three folio volumes, printed in 1738. His ' Pastoral Letters ' 

 is the last of his works we have occasion to mention, in which he 

 combats at once unbelief and enthusiasm. 



In his private relations Bishop Gibson was greatly beloved and 

 respected. He died in 1748, and was buried at Fulham, with many 

 of his predecessors. 



* GIBSON, JOHN, R.A., was born at Conway, North Wales, in 

 1791. When the boy was about nine years old, his father, a landscape 

 gardener, finding his circumstances growing less prosperous, removed 

 to Liverpool, with the view of emigrating to America. He was induced 

 however to settle in Liverpool; and to that change of purpose must 

 doubtless bo ascribed the direction which the studies of our great 

 sculptor eventually took perhaps the very fact of his becoming a 

 sculptor. At Liverpool a new world opened before the boy. While 

 yet a child at Conway, he had been accustomed to draw on pieces of 

 (late the geese, and sheep, and horses he saw about the fields and 

 roads; and under his mother's fostering care bad acquired a good 

 deal of facility, for hi* age and circumstances, in drawing any simple 

 object that caught his fancy. At Liverpool he for the first time saw 

 in the shop-windows engravings and pictures of a higher order than 

 the homely prints which hung upon the walls of his father's cottage. 

 On these he would gaze on his way to and from school, till they were 

 so thoroughly impressed on his mind, that on returning home he 

 could draw them from memory subsequent visits being made to 

 correct the errors in his first effort, and to fill in the minor features. 

 He thus strengthened his memory and increased his skill, and among 

 his schoolfellows, soon coming to be looked upon as a prodigy, ho found 

 juvenile admirers very willing to exchange pence and halfpence for his 

 drawings. All his ambition now was to be a painter, but his father 

 bad neither means nor inclination to indulge his desire. At the age 

 of fourteen he was apprenticed to a cabinet-maker; but after a time 

 turned over to a wood-carver. For this employment he conceived a 

 growing distaste, and at last, when about sixteen, he was relieved from 

 it by the Messrs. Francis of the marble-works, who, having become 

 acquainted with his remarkable fondness for art, and skill in drawing, 

 purchased his remaining time for 701., and encouraged his abilities in 

 designing, modelling, and the use of the chisel ; giving him every 

 facility, and treating him with great consideration. By Mr. Francis 

 he was introduced to Koscoe, the author of the ' Life of Lorenzo de 

 Medici,' who invited him frequently to his elegant seat, Allerton Hall 

 placed the treasures of art it contained at his service, ami directed 

 him to the purest models in ancient art. Mr. Koscoe seems to have 

 intimated his intention of sending his young protege', at his own ex- 

 pense, to Rome, to complete his art-education, but the commercial 

 losses, which about this time overtook him, put it out of his power 

 to fulfil hi* intention. He mentioned the subject however to some of 

 his wealthy friends, and a subscription being privately set on foot, a 

 sufficient lum was soon raised to carry the young sculptor to the 

 metropolis of art, and satisfy his moderate requirements there for a 

 cou]ila of years. 



An introduction having been obtained to Canova, then the acknow- 

 ledged sovereign of art in Rome, Gibson set out in 1817 on his pilgrim- 

 age. On his way he visited London, whore he met with a kind recep- 

 tion from Flaxman, who praised his works, urged him to renewed 



BIOO. DFV. VOL. Ill, 



efforts, and commended his purpose of visitin? Italy. Furnished with 

 additional letters to Canova, Gibson continued his journey, and in the 

 October of 1817 arrived in Rome. The great Italian sculptor gave 

 him a cordial welcome ; assured him that with steady industry he 

 would be certain to achieve greatness ; promised him every aid that 

 he could render, and begged that he would not let any pecuniary wants 

 disquiet him. The young man had no need of pecuniary aid, and 

 told Canova so ; but he entered his studio, and became one of his most 

 diligent and successful pupils. 



Gibson set up on his own account in 1821, and the kindness of his 

 old master followed him to his studio. The first independent work 

 he modelled was a group of ' Mars and Cupid,' and Canova carried 

 the Duke of Devonshire to see it The duke, struck by its merits, 

 directed the artist to execute it in marble. This, Gibson's first com- 

 mission, now forms one of the leading features of the magnificent 

 collection at Chatsworth. Another of Gibson's earliest works was a 

 group of ' Psyche and the Zephyrs,' executed in marble foi another 

 munificent patron of English artists, Sir George Beaumont : of this 

 work Gibson was called upon to execute duplicates for Prince Torlonia 

 and the Hereditary Grand Duke of Russia. 



His success was already assured, but always striving after a higher 

 excellence, as, during Canova's lifetime, Gibson had availed himself to 

 the utmost of all the facilities which the great Italian sculptor opened 

 to him, so, after the death of that eminent man, he did not hesitate, 

 although now himself a master, to become again for a season a pupil 

 of the great Danish sculptor Thorwaldsen. Thus, trained under the 

 two most celebrated sculptors in Europe, Gibson entered on his career 

 with hand and mind more thoroughly disciplined than perhaps any 

 other English sculptor; and he has proved that this training did not, 

 as might have been feared, repress his individuality, or lead him to 

 become iu any sense an imitator. 



From the commencement of his course to the present time Mr. Gib- 

 son has devoted himself almost entirely to poetic sculpture ; and it is 

 by his works of this class that his ultimate rank will be estimated. 

 Nor is there any question that this rank will be with the very first 

 among the recent sculptors of Europe as well as of England. Thoroughly 

 Greek in spirit, and for the most part turning to the old Grecian myths 

 for his subjects, Gibson has never rested content with the mere repro- 

 duction of Greek forms and proportions. He has on the contrary 

 breathed into the old fables a new life and spirit, giving to his Venuses 

 and Auroras, his Helens and Sapphos and Proserpiues nay, even to 

 the oft-repeated Cupids and Psyches, as well as to ' Greek Hunters,' 

 ' Sleeping Shepherds,' and ' Wounded Amazons' expression, character, 

 and personality. Beyond almost any other English sculptor, Gibson 

 appears to recognise and to appreciate the limits and the conventions 

 of .sculpture, and hence his works arc always perfect in pose, exquisite 

 in form, severe yet not cold in style, and free from all approach to 

 flutter or meretricious elegance. In modelling he is very successful, 

 and in the management of the chisel admirable. 



We have indicated a few only out of his almost numberless classic 

 and poetic works ; to name even the greater works he has produced 

 during five-and-thirty years of almost unremitted industry would 

 occupy more space than we can here afford. In portrait statues 

 Mr. Gibson is scarcely so happy as in poetic, subjects. His principal 

 works of this kind have been a statue of the Queen for Buckingham 

 Palace, a modified repetition of it, and the yet unfinished seated 

 statue of her Majesty for the Prince's Chamber in the palace of West- 

 minster, which Gibson hopes to make his greatest and most successful 

 work of this class ; the colossal marble statues of Huskisson, for the 

 Cemetery, Liverpool (repeated in bronze for the front of the Custom 

 House in that town), and for Lloyd's Rooms, London; Sir Robert 

 Peel, for Westminster Abbey ; Mrs. Murray, exhibited at the Royal 

 Academy in 1846; and George Stepbenson, exhibited in 1851. He 

 has also executed several monumental tablets and bassi-rilievi the 

 latter some of them very beautiful, though inferior to his bas-reliefs 

 of classic themes. As a monumental sculptor, Mr. Gibson insists on 

 adhering to the now happily almost exploded principle of habiting his 

 figures in classic costume. Thus Huskisson and Peel are made to 

 stand before their countrymen not as members of the English House 

 of Commons, but as Roman senators with English faces ; an anach- 

 ronism and an incongruity which, with all our respect for Mr. Gibson's 

 great abilities, we cannot wish to see repeated, even though forced to 

 put up as the alternative with the work of an inferior hand. 



Within the last few years Mr. Gibson has lent tho weight of his 

 high reputation and example to an innovation which has caused a 

 great deal of discussion, that, namely, of applying colour to the 

 marble in sculpture. This he did in his statue of the Queen, and 

 some of his other works, very cautiously, and, as may be supposed, 

 with the greatest taste; in the drapery and accessories of his great 

 seated statue of her Majesty it is to bo done more freely. But in 

 recent poetic works he has gone farther. A 'Venus' exhibited by 

 him in 1854 in a room set apart for tbo purpose in his residence at 

 Rome, had the whole of the undraped figure tinted with colour mixed 

 with wax; and the room was so fitted up as to bring out the full effect 

 of the experiment. The statue is tho property of an English gentle- 

 man, and Gibson found many eager to have repetitious of it, or others 

 executed on a similar principle. Gibson defends the practice by a 

 reference to Grecian precedents. But whoever may have originated 



n 



