* Gibson [after] Venus and Cupid {by 1861} Loc? [SC]

Gibson, John (1790-1866; Welsh), after
Venus and Cupid
Parian porcelain
Presented by Rev.W.Wade, by 1861
Present location unknown

This work was first listed in the 1861 MPL catalogue (under donations to the new Museum of Art), then in the 1865 NGV catalogue, describing it as an Art Union prize, “in Parian marble,” and then in AR 1870-71 as by Gibson. It was presumably a replica of a statuette, or a relief such as the marble version in the V&A, dated to c.1839 (reproduced below). For the “Parian” medium, see * Bonham Carter Florence Nightingale {1880} Loc? [SC].

Gibson studied in Rome with both Canova and Thovaldsen, and later became famous in England for his own Neoclassical works, notably his Tinted Venus (c.1851-56), reproduced in Melbourne’s cast collection.

[comparative photo: marble relief in the V&A Museum]

Refs.

MPL cat.1861, p.lxii (“Donations to the Museum of Art,” as “Prize Statuette, in Porcelain. Venus and Cupid”); NGV 1865, p.27, no.70 (under “Casts of Statues”: details as noted above, but without naming Gibson); AR 1870-71, p.33 (under Schedule XXXII, “lllustrations of Ceramic Art,” as by Gibson); not listed in NGV 1880 or 1894

For the marble relief shown here, and comments on other variants, see V&A catalogue (no.A.22-1963). For Gibson, see e.g.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gibson_(sculptor),  a detailed and well-referenced article