Elizabeth, Lady Eastlake

“ In Rome he first became acquainted with rules and technicalities, in which the merest tyro was before him. Canova introduced him into the Academy supported by Austria, and, as is natural with a mind like Gibson’s, the first sense of his deficiencies in common matters of practice was depressing to him. He saw Italian youths already excelling, as they all do, in the drawing of the figure. But the tables were soon turned. His first work in marble—a “Sleeping Shepherd” modelled from a beautiful Italian boy—has qualities of the highest order. ”

“ Roscoe opened to the sculptor the treasures of his library at Allerton, by which he became acquainted with the designs of the great Italian masters.
A cartoon of the Fall of the Angels marked this period,—now also in the Liverpool museum. We must pass over his studies in anatomy, pursued gratuitously by the kindness of a medical man, and his introductions to families of refinement and culture in Liverpool. Roscoe was an excellent guide to the young aspirant, pointing to the Greeks as the only examples for a sculptor. Gibson here found his true vocation. ”

“ GIBSON, JOHN (1790–1866) , English sculptor, was born near Conway in 1790, his father being a market gardener. To his mother, whom he described as ruling his father and all the family, he owed, like many other great men, the energy and determination which carried him over every obstacle. When he was nine years old the family were on the point of emigrating to America, but Mrs Gibson’s determination stopped this project on their arrival at Liverpool, and there John was sent to school. ”