Sir John Gilbert stands as one of the most prolific and influential figures in British art during the Victorian era. Active from the 1830s until his death in 1897, Gilbert mastered multiple mediums, including oil painting, watercolour, and, most notably, wood-engraved illustration. His work, characterized by its energy, dramatic flair, and historical subject matter, reached an enormous audience, particularly through popular illustrated periodicals. Knighted for his services to art and serving as President of the prestigious Royal Watercolour Society, Gilbert occupied a central position in the London art world, even if his name is perhaps less universally recognized today than some of his contemporaries like Frederic Leighton or John Everett Millais. This article explores the life, career, diverse output, and lasting legacy of this remarkable Victorian artist.
Early Life and Artistic Awakening
John Gilbert was born on July 21, 1817, in Blackheath, then a village southeast of London. He was the eighth child of George Felix Gilbert, an estate agent. The family faced financial constraints, which initially directed young John away from his artistic inclinations. Following a brief period of formal schooling, he was placed as a clerk in his father's estate agency office on the Old Kent Road. However, the drudgery of office work held little appeal for a young man already captivated by art.
Despite his father's initial resistance and the lack of formal art school training, Gilbert was determined to pursue an artistic career. He was largely self-taught, honing his skills through relentless practice and observation. He did receive some limited, informal guidance, most notably a few weeks of instruction in colour and technique from the fruit painter George Lance. This brief mentorship, however, constituted the bulk of his formal artistic education. Gilbert's path was primarily one of autodidacticism, driven by innate talent and an unwavering passion for drawing and painting.
His early attempts to gain entry into established art institutions were met with rejection. He applied unsuccessfully for admission to the Royal Academy Schools. Undeterred, Gilbert focused on developing his skills independently, studying old masters and practicing drawing incessantly. This period of self-directed learning laid the foundation for the versatility and technical proficiency that would characterize his later career. He began experimenting with various media, showing an early aptitude for capturing movement and historical detail.
The Rise of an Illustrator
Gilbert's breakthrough came not initially through painting exhibitions, but via the burgeoning field of pictorial journalism and book illustration. The 1830s and 1840s saw a massive expansion in illustrated publications, driven by advancements in wood engraving technology. Gilbert quickly proved adept at creating designs suitable for this medium. His drawings were dynamic, clear, and translated effectively into engraved prints.
He began submitting work to illustrated books and periodicals. One of his earliest significant commissions was providing illustrations for editions of Shakespeare. His talent was soon recognized by publishers and editors. A pivotal moment came with his association with the Illustrated London News, founded in 1842. For decades, Gilbert became one of its most important and prolific contributors, producing thousands of illustrations covering news events, historical scenes, social occasions, and literary adaptations.
His work for the Illustrated London News, Punch, and other publications made his style instantly recognizable to a vast public. He possessed an extraordinary ability to quickly grasp the essence of a scene and render it with vigour and dramatic effect, often working under tight deadlines. His illustrations for serialised novels and historical articles were particularly popular, bringing texts to life for millions of readers. This work cemented his reputation long before he achieved comparable fame as a painter. His contemporary, the equally famous illustrator Gustave Doré, worked in a similar vein, though often with a darker, more fantastical edge.
Master of Watercolour
While gaining fame as an illustrator, Gilbert also dedicated himself to watercolour painting. He began exhibiting watercolours in the late 1830s. His skill in this medium led to his election as an Associate of the prestigious Society of Painters in Water Colours (the "Old" Water-Colour Society, later the Royal Watercolour Society or RWS) in 1852. He became a full Member in 1854, marking his acceptance into the highest echelons of watercolour practice.
Gilbert's watercolours often mirrored the subjects of his illustrations and oil paintings – historical events, scenes from literature, particularly Shakespeare and Sir Walter Scott, and depictions of chivalry. His technique was robust and often employed bodycolour (gouache) to achieve rich tones and opacity, sometimes resembling the effects of oil painting. This contrasted with the purer, more transparent washes favoured by earlier watercolourists like J.M.W. Turner or later figures such as Myles Birket Foster, another prominent Victorian illustrator and watercolourist.
His commitment to the RWS was profound. He was a regular and major exhibitor at its galleries for over four decades. His standing within the society grew steadily, culminating in his election as its President in 1871, succeeding Frederick Tayler. He held this prestigious position until his death in 1897. His leadership underscored the high regard in which he was held by his fellow artists and his importance in promoting watercolour as a major art form.
History Painting and Academic Recognition
Alongside his illustration and watercolour work, Gilbert pursued oil painting with ambition, focusing primarily on historical subjects. He began exhibiting oils at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1838 and also showed works at the British Institution. His historical paintings were often large-scale, multi-figure compositions depicting dramatic moments from British and European history, mythology, and literature.
His canvases frequently featured scenes of medieval pageantry, battles, and royal courts. Works like The Battle of the Somme (referring to a historical battle, not WWI), Richard II Resigning the Crown to Bolingbroke, and The Crusaders (reportedly inspired by Peter Paul Rubens and Leonardo da Vinci) showcased his ability to handle complex compositions, dynamic action, and rich costumes. His particular fondness for chivalric themes and scenes drawn from the novels of Sir Walter Scott earned him the popular nickname "the Scott of painting," highlighting his role as a visual counterpart to the historical novelist.
His style in oil was characterized by vigorous brushwork, dramatic lighting reminiscent of Baroque masters, and a strong narrative drive. While perhaps lacking the meticulous finish of Academic painters like Lawrence Alma-Tadema or the symbolic depth of G.F. Watts, Gilbert's paintings possessed an undeniable energy and visual impact. His approach to history painting was rooted in the Romantic tradition, emphasizing drama and emotion over archaeological precision, distinguishing his work from the more detailed historical reconstructions favoured by some contemporaries like Daniel Maclise earlier in the century.
His consistent exhibition record at the Royal Academy eventually led to formal recognition. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy (ARA) in 1872, the same year he was knighted by Queen Victoria primarily for his services to art, particularly his presidency of the RWS. In 1876, he achieved the highest academic distinction by being elected a full Royal Academician (RA). This confirmed his status as a pillar of the Victorian art establishment.
Signature Style and Technique
Across all mediums, Sir John Gilbert's art is defined by its dynamism, energy, and narrative focus. Whether in a rapid sketch for the Illustrated London News, a richly coloured watercolour, or a large historical oil painting, his primary aim was to tell a story effectively and engagingly. He excelled at depicting figures in motion, crowd scenes, and moments of high drama.
His use of colour was typically bold and rich, contributing to the overall vitality of his work. He employed strong contrasts of light and shadow (chiaroscuro) to heighten dramatic tension and focus the viewer's attention. His drawing, developed through constant practice for illustration, was confident and expressive, capturing character and action with remarkable facility. He was less concerned with minute detail than with overall effect, a trait that set him apart from the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (Millais, William Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti) who rose to prominence during his career.
Gilbert's versatility was remarkable. He moved seamlessly between the demands of black-and-white illustration for wood engraving, the specific techniques of watercolour (including extensive use of bodycolour), and the complexities of large-scale oil painting. His illustrative work undoubtedly informed his painting, lending it a strong graphic quality, while his painterly sensibilities enriched his illustrations. He effectively blurred the boundaries between these different artistic spheres, demonstrating mastery in each. His prolific output across these fields – estimated at nearly 450 paintings exhibited and potentially over 40,000 designs for illustration – testifies to his extraordinary work ethic and imaginative fertility.
Key Works in Focus
Gilbert's vast output makes selecting representative works challenging, but certain pieces encapsulate his style and thematic concerns. His illustrations for the Howard Staunton edition of Shakespeare (published 1858-1860) are among his most celebrated achievements in black-and-white. Designs like Hamlet and the Gravediggers or scenes from Macbeth and Othello demonstrate his ability to capture the psychological intensity and dramatic power of the plays through dynamic composition and expressive figures. These wood engravings reached a huge audience and significantly shaped popular visual interpretations of Shakespeare in the 19th century.
In watercolour, works like Sir Lancelot du Lake (exhibited 1887) exemplify his mature style and his fascination with Arthurian legend and chivalry. Such pieces showcase his rich colour, complex groupings of figures, and the romantic, somewhat nostalgic view of the medieval past that earned him the "Scott of painting" moniker. The energy of charging knights and the pageantry of tournaments were subjects he returned to repeatedly.
Among his major oil paintings, The Crusaders (or similar titles depicting crusader scenes) stands out. These large, ambitious canvases allowed him to orchestrate complex battle scenes, filled with armour, horses, and dramatic action, drawing on historical accounts and literary sources. While perhaps viewed by some critics then and now as overly theatrical, these works were immensely popular with the Victorian public and demonstrated his ambition to compete in the prestigious genre of history painting alongside artists like Edward Burne-Jones (though Burne-Jones's approach was more aesthetic and symbolic) or the aforementioned Maclise.
Contemporaries and Context
Sir John Gilbert's long career spanned a period of immense change and diversity in British art. He emerged during the era of late Romanticism and worked through the rise of Pre-Raphaelitism, the Aesthetic Movement, and the consolidation of Academic painting. His own work remained broadly consistent within a Romantic-historical framework, though adapted across different media.
He was a contemporary of the leading Pre-Raphaelites – Millais, Hunt, Rossetti – but his style differed significantly in its looser handling and emphasis on action over intense detail and symbolism. He shared the Victorian fondness for historical and literary subjects with many artists, including Frederic Leighton, Edward Poynter, and Lawrence Alma-Tadema, though their styles were generally more polished and classical. His dramatic energy finds echoes in the work of French illustrator Gustave Doré.
Within the realm of watercolour, he was a leading figure alongside artists like Myles Birket Foster, Carl Haag, and Frederick Tayler (his predecessor as RWS President). His robust, often opaque technique contrasted with the atmospheric transparency of earlier masters like Turner or the detailed naturalism of Foster. As an illustrator, he was pre-eminent, working alongside numerous artists for publications like the Illustrated London News, setting a high standard for graphic journalism and narrative illustration. Figures like Edwin Landseer (famous for animal paintings but also historical scenes) and James Tissot (known for scenes of modern life) represent other facets of the diverse Victorian art world in which Gilbert operated.
Legacy and Reputation
During his lifetime, Sir John Gilbert was immensely popular and highly respected within the art establishment. His knighthood and presidency of the RWS attest to his standing. His illustrations reached an unprecedentedly wide audience, making him arguably one of the most seen artists of his day. He played a crucial role in shaping the visual culture of the Victorian era, particularly through the popular press and illustrated editions of classic literature.
However, his posthumous reputation has perhaps suffered in comparison to some contemporaries. Changing tastes in the 20th century moved away from Victorian narrative and historical painting. His association with popular illustration, sometimes seen as less "serious" than fine art painting, may also have contributed to a relative decline in critical attention compared to figures like the Pre-Raphaelites or leaders of the Aesthetic Movement like Burne-Jones or Whistler.
Nevertheless, recent scholarship and exhibitions have begun to re-evaluate Gilbert's significant contributions. His technical skill, imaginative power, and sheer productivity are undeniable. He remains a key figure for understanding Victorian art, the history of illustration, and the popularisation of historical and literary themes in the 19th century. His work provides a vivid window into the visual imagination of his time. His generous bequest of many of his works to various British municipal galleries (London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham) ensured his art remained accessible to the public.
Conclusion
Sir John Gilbert was a towering figure in Victorian art, a master craftsman whose talents encompassed oil painting, watercolour, and, most influentially, illustration. Largely self-taught, he rose through prodigious effort and innate ability to become President of the Royal Watercolour Society, a Royal Academician, and a knight of the realm. His dynamic and dramatic interpretations of history and literature, particularly Shakespeare and Scott, defined the visual understanding of these subjects for generations of Britons. While perhaps overshadowed in modern art history by innovators who broke more radically with tradition, Gilbert's immense output, technical versatility, and central role in the visual culture of his time secure his place as a major and fascinating artist of the 19th century. He died on October 5, 1897, leaving behind a vast and vibrant body of work that continues to engage viewers with its narrative power and historical sweep.
