GIBSON, JOHN (179o-1866), English sculptor, was born near Conway in 179o, his father being a market gardener. He went to Rome in Oct. 1817, where Canova introduced him into the Academy supported by Austria. Gibson, who had had no technical training, was at first depressed by the sense of his deficiencies in common matters of practice. But his first work in marble—a "Sleeping Shepherd" modelled from a beautiful Italian boy—has qualities of the highest order. Gibson was soon launched, and dis tinguished patrons, first sent by Canova, made their way to his studio in the Via Fontanella. He very seldom declined into the prettiness of Canova, and if he did not usually approach the masculine strength which redeems the faults of Thorwaldsen, he more than once surpassed him even in that quality. We allude specially to his "Hunter and Dog," and to the promise of his "Theseus and Robber," which take rank as the highest productions of the sculpture of his time.
The group of Queen Victoria supported by Justice and Clem ency, in the Houses of Parliament—was his finest work in the round. Another famous work by Gibson is the statue of Huskis son (Royal Exchange, London). But great as he was in the round, Gibson's chief excellence lay in basso rilievo, and in this less disputed sphere he obtained his greatest triumphs. His thorough knowledge of the horse, and his constant study of the Elgin marbles resulted in the two matchless bassi rilievi, the size of life, which belong to Lord Fitzwilliam—the "Hours leading the Horses of the Sun," and "Phaethon driving the Chariot of the Sun." Gibson was the first Englishman 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-called "tinted" Venus, and in the "Cupid tormenting the Soul," once in the Holford collection, now dispersed. He justified his use of colours by reference to Greek practice. Gib son was elected R.A. in 1836, and bequeathed all his property and the contents of his studio to the Royal Academy, where his marbles and casts are open to the public. An important collection of his works made by Mrs. Sandbach, the granddaughter of W. Roscoe, is at Hafod in Denbighshire. He died at Rome on Jan. 27, 1866.
See Lady Eastlake, Life of John Gibson, R.A. (1870) which contains his autobiography ; also T. Matthews, The Biography of John Gibson (191I) ; T. M. Rees, Welsh painters, engravers and sculptors (1912).