John Gibson RA, Birth of Venus.
Pen and ink with pencil on wove paper. 226 mm x 291 mm. © Photo: Royal Academy of Arts, London.
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Birth of Venus
John Gibson RA (1790 - 1866)
RA Collection: Art
A drawing of 'The Birth of Venus'. The goddess stands in the centre of the composition, viewed from the front, being crowned with a garland of flowers by a female figure on the right as she looks down at Cupid who clings to her arm on the left.
The drawing is in pen and ink outline, over pencil, with hatched shading. The image is within a rectangular pen and ink border and the sheet is squared-up, suggesting that the artist intended to transfer this composition to a larger scale, possibly for the sculpted version he produced (see 04/738). Gibson produced a plaster relief of this composition but Matthews and Lady Eastlake state that he did not execute it in marble.
Object details
226 mm x 291 mm
Associated works of art
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