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Sir John Gilbert RA PRWS (1817-1897)

Sir John Gilbert, RA PRWS (1817-1897)

John Gilbert was born at Blackheath, London (lived there as a batchelor all his life) and after being apprenticed to an estate agent, he studied with George Lance and taught himself to draw on the block, engrave, etch and model. He was the first major figure to emerge alongside Harvey in the revival of wood-engaving. Chatto & Jackson date his success from the publication of Hall's English Ballads in 1843, 'the first work of any consequence that presented a combination of the best artists of the time. Indeed it was the leader in what may be called the Illustrated Christmas Books of the present day. Since this period Mr Gilbert has probably produced more drawings on wood than any other artist...' Gilbert was the first serious artist to tackle news illustrating for The Illustrated London News, 1843 and remained as a major contributor until late in life. He made a reputation, however, out of elaborate semi-allegorical pages,��festive Christmas scenes and representations of the seasons for Special issues of magazines, for which he was paid enormous sums of money...He became President of the RWS in 1871, was knighted in the following year (or in 1871 according to Hodnett) and elected to the ARA in 1872 and RA in 1876. He died on 5 October 1897, having given a large collection of his works to various provincial art galleries in 1892.
Much of his illustrative work was engraved by the Dalziels.

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