Edward Gibson

Inscriptionback to top

Signed, lower right: E Gibson/Fct 1690.<sup>1

1</sup> In 1866 Scharf read it as 1690, as Vertue may have done. Piper hesitated between 1690 and 1696.

This portraitback to top

The informal dress and the pose strongly suggest a self portrait, but the identification cannot be proved. Vertue mentioned self portraits by Gibson at the painter Thomas Gibson’s house c.1714-16 (‘Edward Gibson painter nephew [sic] to Will. Gibson. Limner, drew in crayons very well his own picture in crayons, one dres’d as a chinese another like a Quaker with a hat on’ [1]) and at Lord Stafford’s ‘His picture in Crayons. f. 1690’. [2] This last was possibly NPG 1880.

Footnotesback to top

1) G. Vertue, Notebooks, Wal. Soc., XVIII, 1930, p 31. The hat seen in NPG 1880, for all the hint of the orient, is probably a painting cap, as seen in self-portraits by Dahl and Kneller, for example.
2) G. Vertue, Notebooks, Wal. Soc., XXVI, 1938, p 27, c.1743, at Stafford House (Tart Hall), where the Lords Stafford had resided.

Referenceback to top

Piper 1963
D. Piper, Catalogue of the Seventeenth Century Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery 1625-1714, 1963, p 137.

Provenanceback to top

[2nd and 3rd Earls of Stafford, sold from Stafford House c.1743] Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) and Thomas Thane (1782-1846);¹ Christie’s, 26 March 1866, lot 229 as ‘the property of a gentleman received from Paris’;² Gen. Sir Edward Earle Gascoyne Bulwer (1829-1910), his sale, East Dereham, 1911,³ bought Francis Wellesley; his sale, Sotheby’s, 3rd day, 30 June 1920, lot 382,⁴ bought in; bought Leggatt for the NPG, with a donation from the vendor 1920.

¹ Not identified in Lawrence or Thane sales (L 12380, 12414, 12662, or L 18215, 18235, 18241) [lot 12, under sketches in oil by the late Sir Thomas Lawrence, in the Lawrence sale, Christie’s, 5 July 1834, was ‘Portrait of a gentleman in coloured chalks’] but possibly Thane sale (L 18235), Sotheby’s, 16 June 1846, lot 5 ‘Portraits of painters and engravers/Others, under letters G to M’, or 18 June, lot 544 ‘Studies of Heads in chalk …’.
² Sir George Scharf’s Trustees’ Sketch Books, 10:30.
³ See note 4.
⁴ In a letter addressed to Milner, from Westfield Common, near Woking, 29 May 1920 (NPG archive), Francis Wellesley wrote:

'The Sale of my Collection is a tragedy - as you have always taken such a kindly interest in it I will relate the facts. I was very unwell all last winter & when an offer of £55000 reached me I yielded - it was for the Collection ‘all or none’. The agent was Mrs Lewis Hind, whose husband I daresay you know, & I was led to believe that the buyer was an American amateur. There was a long delay in making the first payment of £20000 &, finally, it came out that the buyer was a Syndicate & a death of a member had held up this payment. In disgust, I refused to proceed any further & as my house & the Bath Gallery were blocked with huge cases I sent the whole to Sothebys. Moreover, I had committed myself as regards the greater part of the purchase money. The Sale is a nightmare to me & I wanted to suppress my name but the Auctioneers would not hear of it. Now as regards the Gibson, I would most certainly like you to have it. I bought it at the Sale of General Bulwer’s collection at East Dereham in 1911 for £10. The best plan that I can think of is for you to buy it in the Sale & I believe that it may go for as much as £50. I am going to flee from England whilst the Sale is on & be away from even the echo of it. So I want you, on behalf of the Gallery, to accept this cheque for £50 to buy it - if you fail (which is scarcely possible) to get it will you please use the cheque for some other drawing or miniature which will be acceptable to the Gallery. I leave the choice to you. The NPG paid Leggatt £33.10s for the drawing.'

Exhibitionsback to top

Victoria Art Gallery, Bath, 1918–20; British Self Portraits, Arts Council, 1962, no.14; Master Drawings from the National Portrait Gallery, Tulsa, Miami, Washington DC, Ottawa, NPG, Manchester, Carlisle, Canterbury, 1993–95, no.10.


This extended catalogue entry is from the National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Later Stuart Portraits 1685–1714, National Portrait Gallery, 2009, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.

View all known portraits for Edward Gibson