. The lives of the British sculptors, and those who have worked in England from the earliest days to Sir Francis Chantrey. as muchdivergence of opinion concerning his nationality andparentage, Murray the painter having told Vertue thathe was born in Holland of English parents, while Stoakesassured the same authority that he was the son of aDutchman domiciled in London, and that he was in factborn in Spur Alley, in the Strand. It has now, however,been conclusively proved that Gibbon was born inRotterdam on April 4, 1648, and, having regard to hisvery English name, there seems little doubt that
. The lives of the British sculptors, and those who have worked in England from the earliest days to Sir Francis Chantrey. as muchdivergence of opinion concerning his nationality andparentage, Murray the painter having told Vertue thathe was born in Holland of English parents, while Stoakesassured the same authority that he was the son of aDutchman domiciled in London, and that he was in factborn in Spur Alley, in the Strand. It has now, however,been conclusively proved that Gibbon was born inRotterdam on April 4, 1648, and, having regard to hisvery English name, there seems little doubt that hisfather was a Briton,! even if his mother, which is not * Anecdotes of Painting. f The sculptor invariably wrote his name Gibbon, and as such it shouldbe spelt, although Gibbons is more frequently used now. Indeedin the registers of St. Pauls, Covent Garden, the tv/o names are thusvariously spelt: Grimlin, Grinling, Grinlim ; and Gibbon, Gibon, Gibons,and Gybbon, but never Gibbons. t It has been thought that Simon Gibbon, a carpenter who worked forInigo Jones, may have been his father, but this has not been fr&Q&rfirJ GRINLING GIBBON GRINLING GIBBON 73 unlikely—as Grinling seems to be a Dutch name andmay indeed have been the surname of her family—was anative of Holland.* It appears probable, although there is no certain recordof the fact, that young Gibbon came over to this countryduring the year after the Great Fire, when he was justnineteen, a period when the sudden chance of employ-ment on rebuilding and decoration gave an impetus tothat immigration of foreign artists which then took know nothing of Gibbons training in the art ofcarving ; indeed, he seems to have been one of thosenatural geniuses who can dispense with the usual curri-culum, for when he arrived in this country and tooklodgings in Bell Sauvage Court, Ludgate Hill, he executeda pot of flowers with such dexterity and skill that, it issaid, the leaves shook as coaches passed by the house,b
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