68 
Some of the finest work oj Grin¬ 
ling Gibbons is contained in his 
panels, The Four Seasons, of 
which this, with its fifes, flageo¬ 
lets, and fiery torch, is Winter 
O NE winter’s clay in the year 1671, 
John Evelyn of diary fame was 
strolling in the neighborhood of Saves 
Court, his estate in Deptford, some four 
miles east of London Bridge, when the fol¬ 
lowing incident took place which he 
chronicled under date of January 18: 
“This day I first acquainted his Ma ty 
with that incomparable young man Gibbon, 
whom I had lately met with in an obscure 
place by mere accident as I was walking 
neere a solitary thatched house in a field 
in our parish, neere Saves Court. I found 
him shut in: but looking in at the window 
I perceived him carving that large cartoon 
or crucifix of Tintoret, a copy of which 
I had myselfe brought from Venice, where 
the original painting remains. I asked if 
I might enter; he open'd the door cordially 
to me, and I saw him about such a work 
as for y e curiosity of handling, drawing 
and studious exactness, I never had before 
seene in all my travels. I questioned him 
why he worked in such an obscure and lone¬ 
some place; he told me that it was that 
he might apply himself to his profession 
without interruption and wondered not a 
little how I had found him out, I asked if he 
was unwilling to be made knowne to some 
greate man, for that I believed it might 
turn to his profit; he answer’d lie was yet 
but a beginner; but would not be sorry to 
sell off that piece; on demanding the price 
he said £100. In good earnest, the very 
frame was worth the money, there being 
nothing in nature so tender, and delicate 
House 
& 
Garden 
THE WOOD CARV¬ 
ING OF GRINLING 
GIBBONS 
GARDNER TEALL 
This carving is the Spring of 
The Four Seasons group and, 
as in all of Gibbons’ work, it 
is done with rare fidelity to 
nature and with amazing skill 
as the flowers and festoons about it, and yet 
the worke was very strong; in the piece 
was more than 100 of men, etc. I found 
he was likewise musical and very civil, 
sober, and discrete in his discourse. There 
was only an old woman in the house. So 
desiring leave to visite him sometimes, I 
went away.’’ 
This “Gibbon” discovered by Evelyn was 
none other than Grinling Gibbons who was 
tc achieve high fame for his wood-carvings 
and whose work was to reach the apex of 
English achievement in this art. Evelyn 
always referred to him as “Gibbon” and by 
that name he was more generally known to 
his contemporaries than by the name of 
Gibbons. The carved piece on which 
Evelyn found Gibbons at work was “The 
Stoning of St. Stephen” and is now in the 
Victoria and Albert Museum in London. 
Of Grinling Gibbons’ antecedents when 
Evelyn came upon him we know very 
little—almost nothing. It is believed he 
was born in Rotterdam. One of his parents 
was English, perhaps both. His father may 
have been Simon Gibbons, who worked as 
a master carpenter under Inigo Jones and 
was descended from three generations of 
English musicians, a suggestion based on 
Grinling Gibbons’ own ability as a musi- 
Until Gibbons’ day wood carving 
was done in low relief. His 
work was the first to be marked 
by such complete undercutting, 
as in this vertical panel 
