Mary Gwenllian Gibson

Born 1888
Died 1966

Active: 1911 - 1966

Country of birth and death: England

Painter, teacher of leatherwork, needlework and bookbinding

Born in Wolverhampton. She was the daughter of Frederick J. Gibson (born c.1860 in Cambridge) a Woverhampton chemist and druggist. Mary taught leatherwork, needlework and bookbinding at Wolverhampton School of Art but was also a painter in oils, exhibiting at the Royal Academy of Arts during the 1940s and 1950s. She was also a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists (elected a member in 1953) and Wolverhampton Society of Artists.

Gibson was a friend and colleague of the sculptor Robert Jackson Emerson and was one of the group of artists who met at his studio in Castle Street, Wolverhampton. This provided an open house for young artists and students who wanted to talk about art, watch Emerson at work and sometimes assist in the making of casts. These artists included Thomas Bayliss Huxley Jones and his future wife, Gwynneth Holt, Geoffrey Deeley, Annesley Tittensor and Charles Wheeler (the latter describes the Castle Street studio in his autobiography, 'High Relief'). The Express & Star newspaper proprietor, Norrie Graham, was a close friend of Emerson and allowed him the use of the big-top lit workshop in Castle Street which was originally a paper store for the printing presses below. The newspaper has a painting by Mary Gibson of the interior of the studio which portrays Emerson at work.

Emerson painted a portrait of Mary Gibson, which was presented to Wolverhampton Art Gallery by Gwynneth Holt. Gibson was at Emerson's bedside when he died and her grave is close to his in St Phillips Church yard in Wolverhampton.

This entry is based on notes submitted by Brendan Flynn.

Citing this record

'Mary Gwenllian Gibson', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib4_1232546285, accessed 24 Mar 2023]