Joseph Gibbs

Sitterback to top

• Joseph Gibbs (1699-1788), Organist and composer. Sitter in 1 portrait.

Artistback to top

• Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788), Portrait and landscape painter. Artist associated with 262 portraits, Sitter in 8 portraits.

This portraitback to top

Here Gibbs is shown composing a Sonata, with volumes of music by the Italian composers Geminiani and Corelli beside him. In the 1750s when this portrait was made Gainsborough and Joseph Gibbs were both members of the Ipswich Musical Club. Gainsborough's portraits of his musician friends are among his most sensitive, reflecting his own love of music; according to an obituary he 'thought he was not intended by nature for a painter, but a musician'.

Linked publicationsback to top

• Kerslake, John, Early Georgian Portraits, 1977, p. 98
• Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 244

Subject/Themeback to top

• Beningbrough Hall