The son of a Glasgow merchant, John Graham Gilbert (initially known as John Graham) worked in accountancy before pursuing his artistic ability. In 1818 he enrolled as a student of the Royal Academy in London, obtaining its gold medal for historical painting in oil.
He lived in Italy before moving to Edinburgh in 1827, and was admitted to the Scottish Academy in 1829. During his time in Edinburgh he contributed 58 pictures (39 portraits and 19 "fancy figures") to the Academy exhibition.
Following marriage to Jane Gilbert in 1834, he returned to Glasgow and in 1841 became president of the newly formed West of Scotland Academy. In later years he worked from a studio in Yorkhill, where he confirmed his reputation as a portrait painter and colourist. He died on 4 June 1866, and when his widow died in 1877 his collection was left to the city of Glasgow.
IT is the fancy of some to place in the second rank of artists those whose talents are devoted to the perpetuation on the canvas of the forms and features of the men and women whom we most respect and love. Yet, if we look at the value of their services to after generations, we should almost reverse the rule. The landscape painter deals with that which is in itself as lasting as anything beside in the world around. The hills and valleys, the meadows and streams he loves to portray are the property of the generations to come, as well as of ourselves, and will be visited centuries after their chronicler has passed away, by crowds of admiring pilgrims. But the portrait painter gives to our frail humanity an immortality not its own, and the figures of the men of other days stand out upon his canvas to be scanned by the curious and eager gaze of thousands in the time to come.
Nor can it be said that the resources of the painter's art or the practical applications of his genius are restricted of necessity when he deals with the portraiture of living forms. The noble specimens that have come down to us from Titian and Vandyke and Velasquez prove that the highest reach of artistic power may be attained in this special branch. In our own day we have seen the portraits of Millais rival in attraction and in the evidence of genius - depicting not only the form but the soul within the form - the best ideal groups, or the fairest stretches of landscape scenery that have come from his easel; while in Scotland we have a national pride in claiming as our own, Jamieson, and Raeburn, and the great colourist whose name will be always associated with the art history of the West of Scotland during the last generation.
John Graham Gilbert - we prefer to write of him under the name by which he was so long known and loved among us - was born in 1794 in the Stockwell of Glasgow. It was then one of the leading streets of the old city, though two years previously the stately dwelling of Mr. J. Glassford, built originally by Mr. Campbell of Shawfield, which looked down it from the other side of Argyle Street, had been removed to make way for Glassford Street, one of the long series of streets and squares that were to follow to the west. It had been in its way a fashionable street - one in which in 1745 the officers of the Jacobite forces had taken up their quarters, in which Sir Thomas Monroe and Mrs. Grant of Laggan had been born, and in which, or in the streets that opened from it, still lived or were to live such citizens as John Stuart Crawford of Milton, Colin Dunlop Donald, William Brown, John Buchanan of Carston, Andrew Hunter of Jordanhill, the Murrays of Monkland, and the Oswalds of Shieldhall and Auchencruive.
His father, David Graham, was a West India merchant, well to do, and connected in business with old Mr. Buchanan of Dowanhill. His mother's maiden name was Agnes McAslan, daughter of John McAslan of "The Hill," a well-known merchant in Glasgow. She died early, leaving eleven children. The latter years of his father's life were spent in 134 Montrose Street, which was built by him about 1803.
Mr. Graham gave his son what was then thought the best education for a Glasgow youth, sending him to the Grammar School of his native city (located at that date in the buildings now occupied as Anderson's College in George Street), and then taking him into his own counting-house. But before this the natural bent of the youth's genius had begun to show itself, and at the school and in the office his pencil had a greater charm for him than his books or his pen. As early as fourteen he had begun to find that he had the gift of catching a likeness, and his grandfather, old Mr. McAslan, who was his first sitter, rather encouraged his taste. On the other hand, it was at first - as so often has happened in similar cases - a vexation to his father, who for a time struggled hard to get him to turn his mind to business, but at last, like a wise man, gave up the attempt. The concession once obtained that he should devote himself to art, it was agreed he should go to London, where, in 1818, he was entered as a student of the Royal Academy. In the following year he obtained a silver medal for the best drawing from the antique, and in 1821 the gold medal for the best historical painting in oil, the subject set being "The Prodigal Son."
From London he proceeded to Italy, where he resided for several years, copying in the various galleries, but chiefly studying in Rome. In the latter city he made the intimate acquaintance of the late Mr. Gibson, Mr. Wyatt, and Mr. McDonald, sculptors, his acquaintance with the former of whom ripened into a warm friendship which lasted through life - they both died in the same year - and Mr. Gibson was more than once a visitor at Yorkhill.
Mr. Graham Gilbert's taste had from the first lain in the direction of portraiture, and on his return home in 1827 he settled down in Edinburgh, where at No. 14 George Street he commenced the professional practice of his art, and soon attained to very high eminence.
The year in which Mr. Graham Gilbert settled in Edinburgh was marked by a "new departure" in Scottish Art. In 1819 "The Institution (subsequently the "Royal Institution") for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts" had been founded, and had held its first exhibition of "old masters" in York Place. For some years before that, the leading Edinburgh artists had been holding - also in York Place - annual exhibitions of their own works, but they had disagreed about the allocation of their surplus funds, and the Society had broken up. At this junction "The Institution" proposed to hold annual exhibitions of modern works, the profits of which were to be applied for the benefit of artists and their families. To this the artists consented, and the first of the exhibitions under these auspices was held in 1821. Concurrently with these events "The Board of Trustees for Manufactures in Scotland," appointed by Parliament in 1727, had erected the building known as "The Royal Institution," and in it the Institution's exhibitions were being held when a revolt took place amongst the artistic associates. This revolt had its origin in the fact that the artists were not permitted to have any voice whatever in the management, and its result was that in 1826 a number of the artists seceded from the Institution and formed an independent Scottish Academy, whose first exhibition was opened at 24 Waterloo Place, in February, 1827 - the very year in which Mr. Graham Gilbert (then John Graham) settled in Edinburgh.
The Royal Institution and the Board of Trustees, which were at this time practically under one control, looked upon the Academy with no friendly eyes, foreseeing that the pictures which had hitherto been sent to the exhibitions of the Institution would now be sent to those of the Academy. Instead, therefore, of helping the latter, the two other bodies did their best to overwhelm it in various ways, particularly by holding opposition exhibitions, which, however, were discontinued on its being found, after a three years' conflict, that the Academy was getting the best of it.
The success of the Academy caused also a new movement amongst that section of the Edinburgh artists which, imagining that it would never succeed, had remained under the wing of the Institution. The gentlemen composing that section, finding now that their gloomy forebodings were not going to be fulfilled, negotiated terms for admission to the existing Academy, which were ultimately successful, and the new members were admitted on 10th July, 1829. Amongst the number were John Graham (the subject of our notice) and Mr. Daniel Macnee, the former being nominated one of the members of the first council of the reorganized body. It was not yet "The Royal Scottish Academy," the charter of incorporation which it had applied for in 1827 having in fact been at first refused by Government, and not ultimately granted till 1838.
After the reorganization in 1829, a long series of unpleasant difficulties about the use of the galleries in the Royal Institution buildings, and alleged misappropriation of proceeds which, by agreement, ought to have been applied for the benefit of the artists, resulted in the erection of the National Gallery on the Mound, the foundation stone of which was laid by H.R.H. Prince Albert on 30th August, 1850. In commemoration of the services rendered by Lord Advocate Rutherford and Sir William Gibson Craig, M.P., in repressing the opposition in Parliament to the vote in aid of the erection of the gallery, Mr. (afterwards Sir) John Watson Gordon gratuitously painted their portraits and also those of Lord Provost Johnstone, Lord Cockburn, and Sir John Shaw Lefevre, who had all given invaluable aid. Shortly afterwards Mr. Graham Gilbert painted a portrait of Sir John Watson Gordon. These works were all presented to the Academy, and are included in its collection now in the National Gallery, Edinburgh, where also will be found his masterly portrait of his friend Mr. Gibson, and in the Academy's library his portrait of himself. During Mr. Graham's residence in Edinburgh he contributed to the exhibition no less than 58 pictures - 39 portraits and 19 fancy figures.
In 1834 Mr. Graham married Jane, the niece of Mr. Andrew Gilbert of Yorkhill, and returned to Glasgow where, until Mr. Gilbert's death, he lived, first in 233 St. Vincent Street, and afterwards in St. Vincent Place. When in 1838 his wife succeeded as heir of entail to her uncle's estate, he took, in conformity with the terms of the settlement, the surname of Gilbert, and removed to Yorkhill, where he resided till his death.
His fame as an artist had increased year by year. While his drawing was sometimes open to criticism, as a colourist he outshone all his contemporaries, and in many of his portraits trod close upon the heels of Raeburn himself. It is not strange therefore that to his hand we are indebted for the truthful and lifelike memorials we possess of many of our Glasgow worthies, as well as many others of the men and women of his day. Those who have seen his portraits of Sir John Watson Gordon, of Miss Oswald of Scotstoun, of the Rev. Dr. Brown of Free St. John's, or of the Rev. Dr. John Muir of St. James', will not wonder at the ready recognition accorded to the talents of one who was withal as modest as he was skilful. We remember once, in his studio, being irresistibly compelled to express our admiration of the warmth of colour and depth of tone he had succeeded in imparting to the flesh tints of a portrait then on his easel. "Ah!" he said, "you think that good?" and then taking it down from the easel he placed the picture by the side of the exquisite group by Rubens, now a chief ornament of the collection called by his name in the Corporation Galleries, and which happened to be standing against the wall. "See," he cried, "how Rubens puts me to the blush!"
Though portraits occupied most of his time, he painted many other pictures. Two favourite types of beauty, the Scotch and the Greek, especially pleased his fancy. He had not much of what may be called the imaginative faculty, and taking these subjects mainly as relaxation from the main business of his life, was perhaps too much accustomed to repeat an idea or reproduce it in a slightly altered form. But they were all of them very lovely; whether Greek beauties dressed in their gayest attire, or a Scotch peasant crossing a brook, or clasping her child to her bosom.
In all matters connected with his art he took the warmest interest. He was in a position to acquire, and he did acquire, a remarkable collection of pictures, chiefly of the Italian school, but containing among them the Rubens above referred to, one of the finest existing works of that master, and specimens of Rembrandt, Ruysdael, Berghen, Teniers, Cuyp, Wouvermans, Vanderveldt, and Both, many of them of great value, and all of which, through the munificence of his widow, are now the property of the Corporation of Glasgow. To that school of art, which was gradually developing itself in his native city, he was a warm and steady friend. In another part of this work, where the art struggles of that early period are portrayed at greater length, it is told how, when the question was to secure, for the West of Scotland Academy, the block at the corner of St. Vincent Street and Buchanan Street, where the "Scotsman's" office now stands, at the then large price of £3,000 (what a small fraction of its value now!) he offered, should the bargain be repented of, to take the risk of it on himself. When at last the West of Scotland Academy was formed in 1841 he was at once named its president, and his genial and kindly heart rejoiced in the beginnings of an advance in artistic culture, the present development of which he could hardly, even in his most sanguine moments, have ventured to anticipate.
But to see him at his best, for he shrank from public notoriety of any kind, it was needful to see him in his studio at Yorkhill, or among the friends he loved to bring around him in a place which to them has become surrounded by many loving memories. Kind and gentle heart! he seemed to live to make those around him happy; and to many, both young and old, who have met him there, and felt the warm pressure of his hand, and seen the modest diffidence that characterized him in public, give way to the brightened eye and the earnest voice with which he would discourse of his art, point out the beauties of his gallery, or tell of some new acquisition at Christie's, or urge some plan, as he was ever doing, for the happiness of those he loved - the world seemed somehow to have become poorer, and the sky less bright when he passed away.
Among his more intimate friends were the late Mr. McGrigor of Cairnoch, Mr. Leckie Ewing of Arngomery, Mr. William Euing, Mr. Thomas Brown of Lanfine, and Mr. Buchanan of Stanley Mills, with the latter of whom, several years before his death, he spent some months in Spain, revelling in the to him hitherto unvisited treasures of the Gallery of Madrid.
He died from heart disease, after a very brief illness, on 4th June, 1866, in his seventy-second year. His widow survived him ten years - longer than her friends had almost ventured to hope she would, for her life was bound up in his. She died in 1877, and by her settlement (they had no children) left the whole of her husband's collection and all his unfinished works to the city of Glasgow. Among these may be seen some of the copies made by him when a youth in the galleries of Italy, and the work on which he was engaged a few days before his death, the brush resting on the easel, as when for the last time the hand of the master had laid it down.
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