Hunter and Dog, c.1847

John Gibson RA (1790 - 1866)

RA Collection: Art

This plaster is probably the plaster model for the marble group Gibson executed for Henry Sandbach, Hafodundas in 1847. Regarding the execution of the marble Gibson wrote:

‘The idea was taken from an incident in the street. My eye had been caught by a big boy holding a dog by the collar at the moment the animal was about to fly at an object. In this I saw a composition which impressed me. I carried it off in my memory, and made a small model in clay. It was ordered by Mr Sandbach to be executed the size of life. This statue I studied with great care, being anxious to make it my best work.’ (Lady Eastlake, 1870, pp. 79-80)

Gibson said that he modelled the figure of the Hunter by merging his impressions of the life model with those of the antique:

‘When I was modelling the Hunter and Dog. I had then a very fine model in the prime of his youth, and his proportion correct; besides having this young man, I went often to contemplate the casts from the Elgin marbles at the academy of St. Luke’s. The sculptures of the Parthenon, called the Elgin collection, are the most valuable and interesting in existence’ (Thomas Matthews, 1911, p. 99)