Robert Gibbings
Encyclopedia
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
artist and author who was most noted for his work as a wood carver and engraver and for his books on travel and natural history.
Life
He was born in Cork into a middle-class family. His father, the Reverend Edward Gibbings, was a Church of IrelandChurch of Ireland
The Church of Ireland is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. The church operates in all parts of Ireland and is the second largest religious body on the island after the Roman Catholic Church...
minister. His mother, Caroline, was the daughter of Robert Day, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and president of The Cork Historical and Archaeological Society. He grew up in the town of Kinsale
Kinsale
Kinsale is a town in County Cork, Ireland. Located some 25 km south of Cork City on the coast near the Old Head of Kinsale, it sits at the mouth of the River Bandon and has a population of 2,257 which increases substantially during the summer months when the tourist season is at its peak and...
where his father was the rector of St. Multose church.
He studied medicine for three years at University College Cork before deciding to persuade his parents to allow him to take up art. He studied under the painter Harry Scully in Cork and later at the Slade School of Art and the Central School of Art.
During the First World War he served in the Royal Munster Fusiliers
Royal Munster Fusiliers
The Royal Munster Fusiliers was a regular infantry regiment of the British Army. One of eight Irish regiments raised largely in Ireland, it had its home depot in Tralee. It was originally formed in 1881 by the amalgamation of two regiments of the former East India Company. It served in India and...
and was wounded at Gallipoli
Gallipoli
The Gallipoli peninsula is located in Turkish Thrace , the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles straits to the east. Gallipoli derives its name from the Greek "Καλλίπολις" , meaning "Beautiful City"...
in the Dardanelles
Dardanelles
The Dardanelles , formerly known as the Hellespont, is a narrow strait in northwestern Turkey connecting the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara. It is one of the Turkish Straits, along with its counterpart the Bosphorus. It is located at approximately...
, was invalided out and resumed his studies in London.
In 1919 he married Moira Pennefather, daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Edward Graham Pennefather from Tipperary
Tipperary
Tipperary is a town and a civil parish in South Tipperary in Ireland. Its population was 4,415 at the 2006 census. It is also an ecclesiastical parish in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly, and is in the historical barony of Clanwilliam....
, with whom he had four children.
Gibbings provided the illustrations for a modern edition of Pierre de Bourdeille
Pierre de Bourdeille, seigneur de Brantôme
Pierre de Bourdeille, seigneur de Brantôme was a French historian, soldier and biographer.-Life:Brantôme was born in Périgord, Aquitaine, the third son of the baron de Bourdeille...
's Vies des Dames galantes (The Lives of the Gallant Ladies), erotic tales printed by the Golden Cockerel Press
Golden Cockerel Press
Golden Cockerel Press was a major English private press operating between 1920 and 1961.The Press was founded by Harold Midgley Taylor in 1920 and was first in Waltham St Lawrence in Berkshire where he had unsuccessfully tried fruit farming...
. This small company was based in the countryside at Waltham St Lawrence in Berkshire
Berkshire
Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...
. Gibbings eventually bought control of the press, and proceeded to publish a range of limited edition books, illustrated by himself and fellow members of the Society of Wood Engravers. Gibbings remained the proprietor of the Golden Cockerel Press from 1924 until 1933, when he sold it to a fellow native of Cork, Christopher Sandford
Christopher Sandford
Christopher Sandford of Eye Manor, Herefordshire, was a book designer, proprietor of the Golden Cockerel Press, a founding director of the Folio Society, and husband of the wood engraver and pioneer Corn dolly revivalist, Lettice Sandford, née Mackintosh Rate.-Biography:He was born in Cork,...
.
Gibbings and Moira indulged in a rather unconventional and hedonistic lifestyle at Waltham St Lawrence, and saw a good deal of Eric Gill
Eric Gill
Arthur Eric Rowton Gill was a British sculptor, typeface designer, stonecutter and printmaker, who was associated with the Arts and Crafts movement...
. This heady period in their lives came to an end with mounting financial problems. Their finest hour, which saw the publication of works like The Canterbury Tales and The Four Gospels, was swiftly followed by the Wall Street Crash which ruined the fine art books market. Gibbings' increased travels abroad to Polynesia
Polynesia
Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including language, culture and beliefs...
led to Moira's being left in charge of the business and home. The perforced sale of the Golden Cockerel Press led to Gibbings' living in a small garden hut with his son Patrick, while Moira left for South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, taking the other three children.
Despite all the setbacks to his life and career, Gibbings soon met Elisabeth Empson, twenty years his junior, whom he married in 1937 and with whom he was to have three children. His work Blue Angels and Whales, was published by Penguin Books
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
in 1938 and gave his talent for writing and illustrating much greater exposure. With the Second World War, Elisabeth and their children emigrated to Canada, while Gibbings taught book design and production at the University of Reading
University of Reading
The University of Reading is a university in the English town of Reading, Berkshire. The University was established in 1892 as University College, Reading and received its Royal Charter in 1926. It is based on several campuses in, and around, the town of Reading.The University has a long tradition...
. In 1939 he built himself a punt, the Willow, and floated down the Thames. His observations on the countryside, the river and its natural history, were the fruits of gentle months spent on the Thames, accompanied by sketch pad and microscope. Written at the time of the Battle of Britain
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain is the name given to the World War II air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940...
, the book captivated readers, acutely aware that the world it portrayed was in imminent danger of being wiped out. Its eager reception led to Coming down the Wye, Lovely is the Lee and Coming down the Seine. The bearded figure of Gibbings became a familiar sight on British television, as was his voice to radio listeners, and massive sales of his books. David Attenborough
David Attenborough
Sir David Frederick Attenborough OM, CH, CVO, CBE, FRS, FZS, FSA is a British broadcaster and naturalist. His career as the face and voice of natural history programmes has endured for more than 50 years...
remembers Gibbings as being one of the inspiring influences at the start of his career. In keeping with his rather turbulent life, Gibbings relied on the companionship of Patience, Elisabeth’s younger sister, in the closing stages of his life. He died at Long Wittenham
Long Wittenham
Long Wittenham is a village and civil parish north of Didcot, and southeast of Abingdon. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it from Berkshire to Oxfordshire, and from the former Wallingford Rural District to the new district of South Oxfordshire.It used to be...
on the banks of the Thames in January 1958.
Works
- Coming Down the Seine
- Coming down the Wye
- The Seventh Man
- A True Tale of Love in Tonga
- Blue Angels and Whales
- Sweet Thames Run Softly - J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd (London, 1940) - from Edmund SpenserEdmund SpenserEdmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognised as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy, and one of the greatest poets in the English...
's ProthalamionProthalamionProthalamion, the commonly used name of , is a poem by Edmund Spenser , one of the important poets of the Tudor Period in England. Published in 1596 , it is a nuptial song that he composed that year on the occasion of the twin marriage of the daughters of the Earl of Worcester; Elizabeth Somerset... - Till I End My Song
- Over the Reefs
- Coconut Island
- John Graham, Convict
- Lovely is the Lee (1945)
- Sweet Cork of Thee (1952)
- Trumpets from Montparnasse (1955)
- IORANA! A Tahitian Journal (1932)
External links
- Gibbings Collection Reading University Special Collections
- Penguin Archive Bristol University Library Special Collections
- Review of 'Blue Angels and Whales' Penguin Archive Project, Bristol University