Grinling Gibbons (4 April 1648 – 3 August 1721) was an Anglo-Dutch sculptor and wood carver known for his work in England, including Windsor Castle and Hampton Court Palace, St Paul's Cathedral and other London churches, Petworth House and other country houses, Trinity College, Oxford, and Trinity College, Cambridge. Gibbons was born to English parents in Holland, where he was educated. His father was a merchant. Gibbons was a member of the Drapers' Company of London; he is widely regarded as the finest wood carver working in England, and the only one whose name is widely known among the general public. Most of his work is in lime (''

Tilia ''Tilia'' is a genus of about 30 species of trees or bushes, native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The tree is known as linden for the European species, and basswood for North American species. In Britain and Ireland they ...

'') wood, especially decorative

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including ...

garlands made up of

still-life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or man-made (drinking glasses, bo ...

elements at about life size, made to frame mirrors and decorate the walls of churches and palaces, but he also produced furniture and small relief plaques with figurative scenes. He also worked in stone, mostly for churches. By the time he was established he led a large workshop, and the extent to which his personal hand appears in later work varies.

Life

Very little is known about his early life. The name Grinling is formed from sections of two family names. He was born in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte (river), Rotte'') is the second largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the Prov ...

, Netherlands, and it is sometimes thought that his father may have been the Englishman Samuel Gibbons, who worked under

Inigo Jones Inigo Jones (; 15 July 1573 – 21 June 1652) was the first significant architect in England and Wales in the early modern period, and the first to employ Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmetry in his buildings. As the most notable archit ...

, but even two of his closest acquaintances, the portrait painter Thomas Murray and the diarist

John Evelyn John Evelyn (31 October 162027 February 1706) was an English writer, landowner, gardener, courtier and minor government official, who is now best known as a diarist. He was a founding Fellow of the Royal Society. John Evelyn's diary, or m ...

, cannot agree on how he came to be introduced to King Charles II. He moved to

Deptford Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, within the London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a Ford (crossing), ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century to the late 19th it was home ...

, England, around 1667, and by 1693 had accepted commissions from the royal family and had been appointed as a master carver."Grinling Gibbon"
''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved 30 September 2009. By 1680 he was already known as the "King's Carver", and carried out exquisite work for

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglicanism, Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London ...

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original c ...

, and the Earl of Essex's house at

Cassiobury The Cassiobury Estate is a suburban residential area of Watford in Hertfordshire, England. It is bounded to the south by Cassiobury Park, the main public park in the town, to the west by playing fields next to the River Gade, and to the northea ...

. His carving was so fine that it was said a pot of carved flowers above his house in London would tremble from the motion of passing coaches. The diarist Evelyn first discovered Gibbons' talent by chance in 1671. Evelyn, from whom Gibbons rented a cottage near Evelyn's home in Sayes Court,

(today part of south-east London), wrote the following: "I saw the young man at his carving, by the light of a candle. I saw him to be engaged on a carved representation of

Tintoretto Tintoretto ( , , ; born Jacopo Robusti; late September or early October 1518Bernari and de Vecchi 1970, p. 83.31 May 1594) was an Italian painter identified with the Venetian school. His contemporaries both admired and criticized the speed wit ...

's "Crucifixion", which he had in a frame of his own making." Later that same evening, Evelyn described what he had seen to

Sir Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churche ...

. Wren and Evelyn then introduced him to King Charles II who gave him his first commission – still resting in the dining room of Windsor Castle. Gibbons was a member of the Drapers' Company in the City of London, being admitted by patrimony in 1672 and called to the livery in 1685. He was elected to the court and as a warden and then stood for election to be Master in 1718, 1719 and 1720, losing to an alderman each time.

Horace Walpole Horatio Walpole (), 4th Earl of Orford (24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English writer, art historian, man of letters, antiquarian, and Whig politician. He had Strawberry Hill House built in Twi ...

later wrote about Gibbons: "There is no instance of a man before Gibbons who gave wood the loose and airy lightness of flowers, and chained together the various productions of the elements with the free disorder natural to each species." Gibbons is buried at

St Paul's, Covent Garden St Paul's Church is a Church of England parish church located in Bedford Street, Covent Garden, central London. It was designed by Inigo Jones as part of a commission for the 4th Earl of Bedford in 1631 to create "houses and buildings fit fo ...

, London.

Work

Gibbons was employed by Wren to work on

and later was appointed as master carver to George I. He was also commissioned by King William III to create carvings, some of which adorn Kensington Palace today. An example of his work can be seen in the Presence Chamber above the fireplace, which was originally intended to frame a portrait of Queen Mary II after her death in 1694. Also in the Orangery at Kensington, you can see some his pieces. Many fine examples of his work can still be seen in the churches around London, particularly the choir stalls and organ case of St Paul's Cathedral. Some of the finest Gibbons carvings accessible to the general public are those on display at the National Trust's

Petworth House Petworth House in the parish of Petworth, West Sussex, England, is a late 17th-century Grade I listed country house, rebuilt in 1688 by Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, and altered in the 1870s to the design of the architect Anthony Sa ...

in West Sussex. At Petworth the Carved Room is host to a fine and extensive display of intricate wooden carvings by Gibbons. Petworth House Grinling Gibbons

His work can be seen in the London churches of

St Michael Paternoster Royal St Michael Paternoster Royal is a church in the City of London. The original building, which was first recorded in the 13th century, was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. The church was rebuilt under the aegis of Sir Christopher Wr ...

and St James, Piccadilly, where he carved the wood

reredos A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a church. It often includes religious images. The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular architecture, for e ...

and marble font. The Anglican dislike of painted

altarpiece An altarpiece is an artwork such as a painting, sculpture or relief representing a religious subject made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting ...

s typically left a large space on the east wall that needed filling, which often gave Grinling's garlands a very prominent position, as here. In 1682 King Charles II commissioned Gibbons to carve a panel as a diplomatic gift for his political ally Cosimo III, Grand Duke of Tuscany. The ''Cosimo Panel'' is an allegory of art triumphing over hatred and turmoil and includes a medallion with a low relief of

Pietro da Cortona Pietro da Cortona (; 1 November 1596 or 159716 May 1669) was an Italian Baroque painter and architect. Along with his contemporaries and rivals Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini, he was one of the key figures in the emergence of Roman ...

, Cosimo's favourite painter. The panel is housed in the

Pitti Palace The Palazzo Pitti (), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present ...

in Florence. It was recently displayed in the United Kingdom in the ''Grinling Gibbons and the Art of Carving'' exhibition held at the V&A from 22 October 1998 until 24 January 1999. In 1685 the new king James II asked Gibbons to carve a panel for another Italian ally, the Duke of Modena

Francesco II Francesco II may refer to: * Francesco II Ordelaffi (1300–1386) * Francesco II of Lesbos (c. 1365 – 1403/1404) * Francesco II Acciaioli (died 1460), last Duke of Athens * Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua (1466–1519), ruler of the It ...

, brother to his second wife

Mary of Modena Mary of Modena ( it, Maria Beatrice Eleonora Anna Margherita Isabella d'Este; ) was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland as the second wife of James II and VII. A devout Roman Catholic, Mary married the widower James, who was then the younger ...

. The ''Modena Panel'' is a ''memento mori'' for Charles II who died earlier that year and includes a funeral

dirge A dirge ( la, dirige, naenia) is a somber song or lament expressing mourning or grief, such as would be appropriate for performance at a funeral. Often taking the form of a brief hymn, dirges are typically shorter and less meditative than elegi ...

from the play '' The Contention of Ajax and Ulysses'' by dramatist

James Shirley James Shirley (or Sherley) (September 1596 – October 1666) was an English dramatist. He belonged to the great period of English dramatic literature, but, in Charles Lamb's words, he "claims a place among the worthies of this period, not so m ...

: "There is no armour against fate; Death lays its icy hand on kings: Sceptre and crown must tumble down". It also features a medallion self-portrait of Gibbons. The panel is displayed in the Estense Gallery in Modena. St Peter and St Paul church in

Exton, Rutland Exton is a village in Rutland, England. The population was 607 at the 2011 census. The civil parish was abolished in 2016 and merged with Horn to form Exton and Horn. The village The village's name means 'farm/settlement which has oxen'. Th ...

, has a fine marble tomb by Gibbons, dating from 1685, showing Viscount Campden with his fourth wife, Elizabeth Bertie, and carvings of his 19 children. Many experienced Flemish sculptors such as Arnold Quellin (the son of

Artus Quellinus II Artus Quellinus II or Artus Quellinus the Younger (alternative first name: Arnold; variation on family name: Quellijn, Quellyn, Quellien, Quellin, Quellinius) (between 10 and 20 November 1625, Sint-Truiden – 22 November 1700, Antwerp) was a ...

John Nost John Nost (Dutch: Jan van Nost) (died 1729) was a Flemish sculptor who worked in England in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Life Originally from Mechelen in what is now Belgium, he moved to England in the second half of the 17th centu ...

, Anthony Verhuke, Laurens van der Meulen and

Peter van Dievoet Peter van Dievoet (; French language, French: Pierre, Dutch language, Dutch: Peeter, Latin: Petrus; 16611729) was a sculptor, statuary, wood carver, and designer of ornamental architectural features from Brussels. He achieved fame for his work ...

also worked in Gibbon's London workshop as "servants", i.e. collaborators. As these Flemish artists were not trainees they were never entered in the Draper's records. In a document dated 1679 van der Meulen, Quellin and Verhuke are referred to as servants of Gibbons. Many of them left London and returned to their home country after the revolution of 1688.David Esterly, ''Grinling Gibbons and the Art of Carving''
Harry N. Abrams, 30 April 2013, pp. 45, 176, 209, 219224 In the Gibbons workshop these Flemish artists worked on various commissions but the contributions of particular artists active in the workshop are not always identifiable. Laurens van der Meulen and Peter van Dievoet are known to have collaborated on the creation of the statue of King James II during their stay in the workshop of Gibbons.

, ''Anecdotes of painting in England: with some account of the principal artists; and incidental notes on other arts; collected by the late Mr.

George Vertue George Vertue (1684 – 24 July 1756) was an English engraver and antiquary, whose notebooks on British art of the first half of the 18th century are a valuable source for the period. Life Vertue was born in 1684 in St Martin-in-the-Fields, ...

; and now digested and published from his original MSS. by Mr.

'', London, 1765, vol. III, p. 91 : "Gibbons had several disciples and workmen; .. Dievot of Brussels, and Laurens of Mechlin were principal journeymen — Vertue says they modelled and cast the statue I have mentioned in the privy-garden". According to David Green, in ''Grinling Gibbons, his work as carver and statuary'' (London, 1964), one Smooke said to Vertue that this statue "''was modelled and made by Laurence and Devoot (sic)''";

, ''Note Books'', ed. Walpole Society, Oxford, 1930–1947, vol. I, p. 82 : "Lawrence. Dyvoet. statuarys", and ''ibidem'' IV, 50: "Laurens a statuary of Mechlin ... Dievot a statuary of Brussels both these artists were in England and assisted Mr. Gibbons in statuary works in K. Charles 2d. and K. James 2d. time, they left England in the troubles of the Revolution and retird to their own country". St Michael and All Angels Church, Badminton, has a monument by Gibbons to

Henry Somerset, 1st Duke of Beaufort Henry Somerset, 1st Duke of Beaufort, KG, PC (162921 January 1700) was a Welsh politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1654 and 1667, when he succeeded his father as 3rd Marquess of Worcester. He was styled Lord ...

(1629–1700). He was buried alongside his ancestors in the Beaufort Chapel in

St George's Chapel, Windsor St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in England is a castle chapel built in the late-medieval Perpendicular Gothic style. It is both a Royal Peculiar (a church under the direct jurisdiction of the monarch) and the Chapel of the Order of the Gart ...

, but the monument was moved to Badminton in 1878. The monument by Gibbons is now on the north side of the chancel at St Michael and All Angels Church, Badminton, and consists of an

effigy An effigy is an often life-size sculptural representation of a specific person, or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests and for the figures burned in certai ...

of the Duke in Garter robes, reclining on a sarcophagus and a plinth with relief of St George and the Dragon. There are twin Corinthian columns with embossed shafts, acanthus frieze,

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

with flaming urns, and the Duke's arms and supporters. At the top, 25 ft from the ground, is a tasseled cushion supporting a

coronet A coronet is a small crown consisting of ornaments fixed on a metal ring. A coronet differs from other kinds of crowns in that a coronet never has arches, and from a tiara in that a coronet completely encircles the head, while a tiara doe ...

; on the plinth are full-length female figures of Justice and Truth. Above the Duke's effigy, parted curtains show the heavenly host with palms and crowns. The Latin inscription displays the names of his family and the many offices he held.St. Michael and All Angels, Great Badminto
(webpage)
19 July 2013 Gibbons also made the monument for Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell, who was killed in a disastrous shipwreck in 1707. Shovell's large marble monument can be seen in the south choir aisle of

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

. Gibbons' work very often included carvings of

pea The pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the flowering plant species ''Pisum sativum''. Each pod contains several peas, which can be green or yellow. Botanically, pea pods are fruit, since they contain seeds and d ...

pods. A myth states that he would include a closed pod in his work, only carving it open once he had been paid. If the pea pod was left shut it supposedly showed that he had not been paid for the work.

Legacy

Gibbons' association with Deptford is commemorated locally: Grinling Gibbons Primary School is in Clyde Street, near the site of Sayes Court in Deptford. Parts of New Cross and Deptford were in the "Grinling Gibbons" council ward from 1978 to 1998.

London Borough of Lewisham Lewisham () is a London borough in south-east London; it forms part of Inner London. The principal settlement of the borough is Lewisham. The local authority is Lewisham London Borough Council, based in Catford. The Prime Meridian passes thr ...

Bibliography

''The Carved Cartoon: A Picture of the Past''
Austin Clare 1873 * ''The Work of Grinling Gibbons'', Geoffrey Beard, John Murray 1989 * ''Grinling Gibbons and the Art of Carving'', David Esterly, V&A Publications 2000 ;Attribution

Notes

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gibbons, Grinling 1648 births 1721 deaths English sculptors English male sculptors English woodcarvers Dutch sculptors Dutch male sculptors Artists from Rotterdam 17th-century English artists 18th-century English male artists Dutch emigrants to the Kingdom of England Dutch people of English descent