John
Hussey’s most recent work is John Gibson R.A. The World of the Master
Sculptors
The subject of the book, the
sculptor John Gibson, (1790–1866), was born in Caernarvonshire in 1790. He moved
with his family to Liverpool when he was still a child, and it was there, while
working for the marble masons Samuel and Thomas Franceys, on Brownlow Hill, that he
first met William Roscoe.
Roscoe
commissioned a bas-relief from Gibson
for his library at Allerton Hall, the result being Alexander the Great Ordering the Works of
Homer to be Placed in the Sarcophagus of Achilles. The young Gibson
became a regular visitor to Allerton, copying pieces in Roscoe’s collections,
and benefiting not only from Roscoe’s knowledge but also his circle of
friends, several of whom became Gibson’s chief patrons, notably the d’Aguilar
family. By 1814 Gibson was exhibiting at the Royal Academy; by October 1817 he
was in Rome, supported initially by a subscription of £150 raised in Liverpool
by William Roscoe and Rose Lawrence, one of the d’Aguilars’ daughters. He did
not set foot in Britain again for twenty-seven years, during which time he
studied under Canova, among others, and became one of the celebrated sculptors
in Rome.
 |
| John Gibson, self portrait, 1806 (Tate, London) |
His work was popular and is found in many major galleries and public spaces.
 |
| Narcissus, John Gibson, Royal Academy, London |
 |
| William Huskisson, John Gibson, Pimlico Gardens, London. |
You can read
more about Gibson in John Hussey’s book. The particular connection with the
Roscoes, and with North Wales is that Gibson’s important later patrons included one of William and Jane Roscoes' grand-daughters, Margaret Roscoe—who was also one of Gibson's close friends and intimate
correspondents—and her husband Henry Robertson Sandbach (1807–1895).
The
couple had married in 1832 (Henry was JP for Caernarvonshire and from 1855 high
sheriff of Denbigh) and had met Gibson in Italy in the late 1830s. Margaret
enjoyed some celebrity with her writings, chiefly her poems; she also began a
biography of Gibson in 1851, when Gibson was visiting the Sandbach family at
Hafodunos, but Gibson’s sudden recall to Rome, on his brother’s death, and
Margaret’s own illness (she died of breast cancer in 1852) meant that the work was never
written. Gibson, who was devastated by her death, created a monument to her, which is now in the Walker Art Gallery.
 |
Monument to Margaret Sandbach (1812-1852)
John Gibson, RA (1790-l866) c.1852
Marble relief,
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool |
I will look at Margaret's writing, and her botanising at her garden in Hafodunos, in a later post.
And Les Miserables?
Well, that’s not actually connected with the
Roscoes, but it does have a connection with John Hussey, and another of his
books Finding Margaret. The life story of Margaret Bernadine Hall. This is a biography of the Liverpool artist
whose painting of Fantine—imagined from
Victor Hugo’s novel Les Misérables—has
been at the top of the stairs in the Walker for over a century. Here she is, with Cosette in the cradle. (Less Anne Hathaway, more Sarah Lancashire).
 | |
| Fantine, Margaret Bernadine Hall (1863-1910), Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool |
Margaret
was born in 1863 in Wavertree, Liverpool; her father was a local merchant and
in 1879 was elected mayor of Liverpool, but in 1882 the Halls moved to London.
Later that year Margaret moved to Paris, where she studied art for five years,
after which she travelled extensively, visiting Western Europe, North Africa,
Australia, North America, China and Japan, before returning to Paris in 1894;
during those years she exhibited work in Paris, Vienna, Chicago, London and
Manchester..
Margaret
was obviously a pioneer, but sadly most of her paintings have since
disappeared. Fantine is one of only a
few surviving works; another is this study of musician and scholar Sedley Taylor, now in Trinity College, University of Cambridge.
Margaret
moved back to London in 1907, dying in Hampstead in 1910. She is buried in the
churchyard of All Saint’s Church, Childwall, where there is a brass memorial
tablet to her. Her painting Fantine was turned down by the National Gallery, London, in the year of her death, but
was accepted by the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, in 1911.
 |
| Sedley Taylor, by Margaret Bernadine Hall, 1892 (Trinity College, Cambridge) |
So, next time you go to the Walker,
remember, you can see William Roscoe on the stairs, and Fantine too.
________________________
Briefly, John Hussey’s other
books include:
Cruisers, Cotton and Confederates
The story of the ships out
of Liverpool and the people who made them for the
Confederate government during the
American Civil war, including the Alabama,
the Florida, and 30 blockade
-runners.
The Confederate Years
Little known people and places in Liverpool
where the Confederate agents
and blockade-runners carried
out their business during the American Civil War. Includes information on the Grand
Southern Bazaar in St Georges Hall, and how Gracie Fields ended up with the
Captain of the Alabama's sword, and other little-known facts.
The Light of Other Days - Aspects
of Liverpool’s history including the Earle family, Botanic Park, Edge Hill, Smithdown
Road, slave ships and slave captains, and some of the Liverpudlians
who took part in the Charge of the Light Brigade.
All the
books can be obtained on Amazon or from http://www.countyvise.co.uk/
