McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Autograph letter from John Gibson, 2 September 1837
File
1 textual record
John Gibson, the Welsh-born Neoclassical sculptor, was acknowledged as a leading figure in the Roman school of sculpture. Gibson began his artistic career in Liverpool. He later resided in London, where he learned about the art and business of sculpture production. At the age of twenty-seven, Gibson arrived in Rome in 1817 and began studying under the master sculptor Antonio Canova. Although it had been Gibson’s intention to return to London, he remained in Rome the rest of his life. As his reputation grew, his patronage by royalty came to include Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, King Ludwig I of Bavaria, and Czar Alexander II. But his largest patron base was the socially and culturally rising middle class. Gibson accommodated the needs of his patrons through regular commissions of works in marble; however, he also encouraged the dissemination of his designs in other less-expensive media, such as statuettes, cameos, and prints. The international dissemination of his works in various reproductive media thus reinforced his reputation as one of the most important sculptors of the nineteenth century.
File consists of an autograph letter from John Gibson to Abraham, addressed to him at the 'Journal Office | Castle Street | Liverpool’, containing news that ‘Captain Thompson of the Countess of Lonsdale’ will be delivering ‘a present from a few of your friends in Whitehaven’. The letter also includes, pencilled crosswise, a draft of Abraham's reply.
Quarto, 1 page; docketed by Abraham's great-niece, Emma Clark Abraham