John GIBB

Wellington Harbour 1891
Oil on canvas on board
555 x 909 mm
Signed and dated 1891
Collection of the Edmiston Trust, New Zealand National Maritime Museum

John Gibb specialised in marine painting and became one of New Zealand's leading marine artists after arriving in 1876.

Gibbs worked in his studio from sketches and drawings, accurately recapturing the scene in his oils. Wellington Harbour is typical of his large marine works. This scene captures the atmosphere of the busy port. We see the diversity of shipping in the harbour at this time with the paddle steamer, barques, schooners and other smaller craft.

JOHN GIBB was born in Castlecraig, Scotland in 1831. In 1848 he studied art under John McKenzie at Greenock. He attended the Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts and the West of Scotland Institute.

In 1861 he began exhibiting at the Royal Scottish Academy and in 1868, began exhibiting at the more progressive Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts.

Arriving in Christchurch in 1876 he set up a studio, and began taking on pupils and exhibiting his work. He was a founding member of the Canterbury Society of Arts and travelled widely in New Zealand, painting many different regions and in Australia and at the St Louis Exposition, USA. His son William Menzies Gibb was also a painter.

A Scottish academic realist, Gibb was largely unrivalled as a marine artist in New Zealand. He died in Christchurch in 1909.