{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O70413"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O70413/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AU5443/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AU5443/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AU5443","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O70413/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O70413","accessionNumber":"A.6-1988","objectType":"Bust","titles":[{"title":"The Architect James Gibbs","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"<b>Object Type</b><br>This portrait bust of the architect James Gibbs (1682-1754) was made by his friend and associate John Michael Rysbrack (1694-1770). Gibbs commissioned the bust, and it remained in his ownership until his death (see Balderstaon 2001, pp. 9-15). He is shown wearing a wig and dressed in casually (the shirt unbuttoned at the neck); another bust of Gibbs, also by Rysbrack, belonging to the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and now shown in the Radcliffe Camera, depicts the sitter in a more classicising mode, without a wig, and bare-chested. Gibbs and Rysbrack lived near one another on the Harley estate north of Oxford Street in London. They collaborated together on a number of projects, notably monuments in Westminster Abbey (designed by Gibbs, and executed by Rysbrack), and garden ornaments and sculpture for the grounds at Stowe House, Buckinghamshire.<br><br><b>People</b><br>John Michael Rysbrack (1694-1770) was one of the leading sculptors of his day, and, along with Louis Fran‡ois Roubiliac, was one of the most important sculptors active in Britain in the first half of the 18th century. He was a native of Antwerp, but arrived in England in 1720 and carried out all his known work in this country. He specialised in portrait busts, such as this one, and tomb monuments, many of which are in Westminster Abbey. He also collaborated on sculpture for the grounds at Stowe, and most notably sculpted a series in limestone of seven Saxon gods, two of which (Thuner and Sunna) are in the V&A.<br><br><b>Materials & Making</b><br>This bust is carved in marble, one of the most popular materials for portrait busts in the 18th century, although busts were also commissioned in terracotta, bronze, lead and plaster. Rysbrack almost certainly initially modelled the bust from the life in clay, which was then perhaps fired to form terracotta, and this used in turn to cast a plaster model from which the bust would be carved. If all these stages were indeed part of the process for the present bust (and certainly at least one form of initial full-size model would have been necessary), unfortunately none of the other versions has survived. Rysbrack trained in the Low Countries, where modelling terracotta was an established practice as a preliminary to a finished marble piece.","physicalDescription":"","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Rysbrack, John Michael","id":"A8814"},"association":{"text":"sculptor","id":"AAT25181"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[],"techniques":[],"materialsAndTechniques":"Carved marble","categories":[{"text":"Sculpture","id":"THES48896"},{"text":"Portraits","id":"THES48906"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"SCP","id":"THES48600"},"images":["2006AU5443"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"54C (VA)","id":"THES49247"},"free":"","case":"WE","shelf":"FS","box":"1"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Bust","id":"AAT47457"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"England","id":"x28826"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1726","earliest":"1726-01-01","latest":"1726-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Purchased with Art Fund support and the National Heritage Memorial Fund","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"76.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"including original socle","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Dimensions checked: Registered Description; 01/01/1998 by KN\n\nThis object will be remeasured when it returns to Gallery 50. It may not be possible to remove the bust and socle from the base - in which case the overall height will be greater Waiting for weight from Sue Ridley.","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'THIS BUST BY RYSBRACK / OF / JAMES GIBBS / 16 [82] 17 [54]/ / THE ARCHITECT OF THE CHURCH OF ST MARTIN IN THE FIELDS. / WAS PRESENTED TO THE CHURCH / BY / WILLIAM BOORE, 1885'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"on an engraved brass plaque (much-worn) on the front of the socle"},{"content":"'IAC GIBBS / Arch.'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"inscribed on the front of the socle "}],"objectHistory":"Carved in London by John Michael Rysbrack (born in  Antwerp, Belgium, 1693, died in London, 1770).\r\nThe bust belongued to the sitter himself and ws displayed at his London residence at 5 Henrietta Street from the early 1730s; in 1754 inherited by Gibbs's friend Cosmo Alexander (1724-1772); at his death bequeathed to his brother-in-law Sir George Chalmers (c.1729-1791); his sale at Christie's London, 28 March 1783, lot 88; bought by Horace Walpone and displayed at Strawberry Hill; his sale t Strawberry Hill, 13 May 1842, lot 99; sold to Foster; in 1885 given by William Boore to the Church of St Martin-in-the-fields, London; sold to the V&A in 1988. \r\nPurchased with contributions from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the National Art-Collections Fund (through the Eugene Cremetti Fund), from The Vicar and Churchwardens of the Parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields for £465,000, in 1988.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Bust, marble, James Gibbs, by Michael Rysbrack, England, dated 1726","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"David Wilson, 'Roubiliac, the Earl of Pembroke and the chancellor's decision', in <i>Church Monuments</i>, XXI, 2006, fig. 14 on p. 164"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Diane Bilbey, Marjorie Trusted, <i>British Sculpture 1470-2000: A Concise Catalogue of the Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum</i>. London: V&amp;A Publications, 2002, p. 128, 178"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Gordon Balderston, ‘Rysbrack’s busts of James Gibbs and Alexander Pope from Henrietta Street’, in <i>The Georgian Group Journal</i>, vol. XI, 2001, pp. 1-28, illus. "},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Malcolm Baker, <i>Figures in Marble. The Making and Viewing of Eighteenth-Century Sculpture</i>, London, 2000, pp. 95, 98-9, pl. 77 on p. 99"},{"reference":{"text":"Williamson, Paul, ed., <u>European Sculpture at the Victoria and Albert Museum</u>, London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1996","id":"AUTH320316"},"details":"p. 155","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Whinney, Margaret, Sculpture in Britain 1530-1830. 2nd ed. London: Penguin, 1988","id":"AUTH401361"},"details":"p. 168 and fig. 112","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"T. F. Friedman, <i>James Gibbs as a Church Deigner</i>, exh. cat., Derby, 1972, cat. no. 1"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Webb, M. <u>Michael Rysbrack Sculptor</u>, London, 1954, p. 53"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Friedman, T. F., <u>James Gibbs</u>, New Haven and London, 1984, p.14 and frontispiece"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Gunnis, R., <u>Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851</u>, London, 1953, p. 335"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Gibbs, James","id":"N1541"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"British Galleries:\nJames Gibbs (1682-1754),  was one of the most influential architects of the first half of the 18th century. The church of St Martin-in-the-Fields in London was one of his best-known works. His 'Book of Architecture', published in 1728, became a standard textbook, spreading his personal version of the Palladian Style as far as India and North America.","date":{"text":"27/03/2003","earliest":"2003-03-27","latest":"2003-03-27"}}],"partNumbers":["A.6-1988"],"accessionNumberNum":"6","accessionNumberPrefix":"A","accessionYear":1988,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2019LV7347"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-10-17","recordCreationDate":"2002-11-20","availableToBook":false}}