John Philip Kemble

Inscriptionback to top

Incised: KEMBLE in front and on his right side: I GIBSON F^t/ LIVERPOOL/1814.

This portraitback to top

Gibson's letter to Scharf, written from Eastlake's house 30 June 1862, says '... It is the only bust modelled of John Kemble - he sat to me at Liverpool when I was very young' (NPG archive. A larger version in plaster, head and shoulders in costume as 'Cato' or 'Coriolanus', is in Sir John Soane's Museum; a pencil profile to left in classical dress, signed: John Gibson, is in the British Museum (Laurence Binyon, Catalogue of Drawings by British Artists … in the British Museum, II, p 216). Flaxman appears to have used this work as a basis for the statue in Westminster Abbey.

Provenanceback to top

Given by the sculptor in 1862.


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: Richard Walker, Regency Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, 1985, 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 John Gibson

View all known portraits for John Philip Kemble