Liverpool Bite-size Histories: John Gibson R.A. (1790 – 1866)

John Gibson was undoubtedly the finest sculptor to work for the Franceys brothers and although he went on to earn fame and fortune over a period spanning 60 years he never forgot his Welsh roots or his formative years in Liverpool. Gibson was born in Conway “in the shadow of Conway Castle” into a family which spoke mostly Welsh but in 1799 his parents decided to emigrate to America and the family made their way to Liverpool for the transatlantic crossing. However, the frenetic bustling of the Liverpool dockside was a far cry from the serenity of Conway and Gibson’s mother Jane took fright at the prospect of boarding one of the flimsy looking sailing ships and refused to go any further. The family found a place to live in Green Lane off Clarence Street and inadvertently placed Gibson near to the place where the Franceys would begin their Marble Works which would soon become the nearest thing to an academy for aspiring sculptors – Gibson’s father who was a Methodist Minister could well have said that it was pre-ordained.

The young Gibson had always sketched and drawn from his early years in Conway and he continued to do so during his schooling in Liverpool which finished when he was aged 14 and he was apprenticed for 7 years to a firm of cabinet-makers, William Southwell and Jonathan Wilson, based at No.1 Coventry Street. Initially, Gibson was quite happy with the novelty of woodcarving but he later became disenchanted with the work and a chance meeting with a sculptor friend who showed him his carvings of roses in marble made him greatly unsettled. The same friend introduced Gibson to the Franceys brothers and it was a visit to their yard that decided where his future lay. Gibson was desperate to work in marble and the Franceys allowed him to mould in clay a head of Mercury by Legé with the resulting work exhibiting to the Franceys the young man’s latent talent. However, Southwell and Wilson also valued his talents and refused to release Gibson from his apprenticeship until following some unpleasant wrangling the Franceys purchased the apprenticeship for the then considerable sum of £70, indicating clearly their confidence in his future development. Gibson had joined Southwell and Wilson in 1804 and joined the Franceys in 1808 – ironically he would have never completed his apprenticeship anyway as Southwell and Wilson went into liquidation in 1810.

Among Gibson’s many attributes was the ability to get along with most of the people he came into contact with which served him well when he required patronage which was never in short supply. Gibson corresponded with a great number of people, many of them remaining friends throughout his lifetime, and over the years he wrote an astonishing number of letters. This ability to make friends easily was no small thing and manifested itself from a very early age; when Gibson first arrived in Liverpool he continued to sketch just as he had always done and he bought his materials from John Turmeau (1777 – 1846) whose shop was then in Church Street. Born in 1777, Turmeau was descended from a Huguenot family of artists and jewellers which had settled in London. A painter of miniatures, Turmeau’s name first appears when he exhibited at the Royal Academy, London, in 1794 and was living at Villiers Street, Strand. Turmeau settled in Liverpool circa 1800 and his name appeared on the first list of members of the Liverpool Academy in 1810 continuing until 1834, during which time he was President from 1812 to 1814 and treasurer from 1823 to 1834, exhibiting miniatures throughout that period. In the days preceding photography, miniatures were a popular way of keeping portraits of loved ones and skilled miniaturists such as Turmeau made a good living at their trade. Many of Turmeau’s miniatures regularly come up at auction to this day, some of them named and others of unknown subjects.

From Church Street, Turmeau moved shop to Lord Street and then Castle Street where he ended his days – his best known portrait is one of Egerton Smith, the founder of The Liverpool Mercury. Turmeau was married and had 9 children, one of whom, John Caspar Turmeau born in 1809, followed in his father’s footsteps as an artist in landscapes and architectural drawing, exhibiting one work in 1827 at the Liverpool Academy. Although John Gibson was only around 12 years of age when he had first known John Turmeau, the aspiring artist and mature shop owner remained friends and when Gibson was established in Rome, it was this enduring friendship that led to John Caspar Turmeau working under the now famous Gibson in his studio. Turmeau remained several years in Rome but later gave up art and returned to Liverpool where he set up in business as an architect and in that recurring theme of the age died in 1834, a full 12 years before his father.

From the moment that Gibson walked through the door of Franceys Marble Works he never looked back and his initial remarks that “I began my delightful employment in high spirits, and I was truly happy, modelling, drawing and executing works in marble” could quite truthfully have been written when he was in the twilight if his career. Gibson soon justified the Franceys’ faith in his talent and he quickly became adept at carving ornate memorials and sculptures. William Roscoe was a frequent visitor to the Marble Works and in a scenario which would be repeated throughout Gibson’s lifetime, the celebrated abolitionist and art historian admired the sculptor’s work and requested a marble fireplace for his home at Allerton Hall. Roscoe was the first of many patrons that Gibson would attract but as time went by he became more of a mentor to the young man and as Gibson became a frequent visitor to the house in Allerton, Roscoe allowed him the freedom of his extensive library where Gibson spent hours copying rare prints of classical art.

In 1817, Gibson left Liverpool and set out for the Promised Land – Rome, which he regarded as the Mecca of sculpture.

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The story of John Gibson is featured in Liverpool Forgotten Landscapes, Forgotten Lives by John Hussey.