GIBSON, Thomas

English painter and copyist. He was an established portrait painter by 1711, when he was appointed a founding director of Godfrey Kneller’s Academy in London; among his pupils there was George Vertue. Gibson’s sitters included a number of important public figures: Dr Henry Sacheverell (1710; Oxford, Magdalen College), John Flamsteed (1712; Oxford, Bodleian Library), Sir Robert Walpole (untraced), Archbishop William Wake (Oxford, Christ Church Picture Gallery) and Archbishop John Potter (London, Lambeth Palace). His most constant patron was John, 1st Earl Poulett (1663-1743), who commissioned a great number of originals and copies.

Gibson’s career was interrupted in 1729-31 by serious illness, and he was obliged to sell his collection and for a time retire to Oxford. After resuming his practice he was patronized by Augusta, Princess of Wales, who in 1742 commissioned a group portrait of her four children, as well as her own portrait (both British Royal Collection).