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Welsh sculptor

John Gibson (19 June 1790 – 27 January 1866) was a Welsh Neoclassical sculptor who studied in Rome under Canova. He excelled chiefly in bas relief, notably the two life size works The Hours Leading the Horses of the Sun and Phaethon driving the Chariot of the Sun, but was also proficient in monumental and portrait statuary. He is famous for his statues of Sir Robert Peel (Westminster Abbey), William Huskisson (St George's Square) and Queen Victoria (Houses of Parliament). Gibson was elected a Royal Academician in 1836, and left the contents of his studio to the Royal Academy, where many of his marbles and casts are currently on display.

Gibson was born near Conwy, Wales, where his father was a market gardener. When he was nine years old the family were on the point of emigrating to America, but his mother put a stop to this plan on their arrival at Liverpool, where they settled, and where Gibson was sent to school. He became fascinated by the displays in the windows of the city's print shops. The painter and printseller John Turmeau lent him some drawings and plaster casts to copy.

At the age of fourteen, Gibson was apprenticed to a firm of cabinet makers. He soon took a violent dislike to this work, however, and eventually managed to have his articles bought out by the monumental masons Samuel and Thomas Franceys. Gibson was soon launched, and distinguished patrons, initially sent by Canova, made their way to his studio in the Via Fontanella. His aim was always purity of character and beauty of form. He rarely declined into the prettiness of Canova, and if he did not often approach the masculine strength of Bertel Thorvaldsen, he more than once surpassed him even in that quality. He was essentially classic in feeling and aim, but here his habit of observation enabled him to achieve a grace beyond the reach of a mere imitator. His subjects were gleaned from the free actions of the Italian people noticed on his walks, and afterwards given such mythological names as best fitted them. Thus a girl kissing a child over her shoulder became a Nymph and Cupid; a woman helping her child with his foot on her hand on to her lap, a Bacchante and Faun; his Amazon Thrown from her Horse, one of his most original productions, was taken from an accident he witnessed to a female rider in a circus; and Hunter and Dog was also the result of a street scene.

Gibson 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 as of 2005. He died at Rome on 7 January 1866 and was buried in the Protestant Cemetery there.

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 was the group showing Queen Victoria Supported by Justice and Clemency, in the Houses of Parliament, his finest work in the round. Of noble character also in execution and expression of thought is the statue of William Huskisson with the bared arm; and no less, in effect of aristocratic ease and refinement, the seated figure of Dudley North.