Robert Gibbings (born in Cork, Ireland 23 March 1889 - died Oxford 19 January 1958) was an Irish artist and author who was most noted for his work as a wood carver and engraver and for his books on travel and natural history.[1]
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He was born in Cork into a middle-class family. His father, the Reverend Edward Gibbings, was a Church of Ireland minister. His mother, Caroline, was the daughter of Robert Day, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and president of The Cork Historical and Archaeological Society. He grew up in the town of Kinsale where his father was the rector of St. Multose church.[1]
He studied medicine for three years at University College Cork before deciding to persuade his parents to allow him to take up art. He studied under the painter Harry Scully in Cork and later at the Slade School of Art and the Central School of Art.[1]
During the First World War he served in the Royal Munster Fusiliers and was wounded at Gallipoli in the Dardanelles, was invalided out and resumed his studies in London.
In 1919 he married Moira Pennefather, daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Edward Graham Pennefather from Tipperary, with whom he had four children.
Gibbings provided the illustrations for a modern edition of Pierre de Bourdeille's Vies des Dames galantes (The Lives of the Gallant Ladies), [2] erotic tales printed by the Golden Cockerel Press. This small company was based in the countryside at Waltham St Lawrence in Berkshire. Gibbings eventually bought control of the press, and proceeded to publish a range of limited edition books, illustrated by himself and fellow members of the Society of Wood Engravers. Gibbings remained the proprietor of the Golden Cockerel Press from 1924 until 1933, when he sold it to a fellow native of Cork, Christopher Sandford.[3]
Gibbings and Moira indulged in a rather unconventional and hedonistic lifestyle at Waltham St Lawrence, and saw a good deal of Eric Gill. This heady period in their lives came to an end with mounting financial problems. Their finest hour, which saw the publication of works like The Canterbury Tales and The Four Gospels, was swiftly followed by the Wall Street Crash which ruined the fine art books market. Gibbings' increased travels abroad to Polynesia led to Moira's being left in charge of the business and home. The perforced sale of the Golden Cockerel Press led to Gibbings' living in a small garden hut with his son Patrick, while Moira left for South Africa, taking the other three children.
Despite all the setbacks to his life and career, Gibbings soon met Elisabeth Empson, twenty years his junior, whom he married in 1937 and with whom he was to have three children. His work Blue Angels and Whales, was published by Penguin Books in 1938 and gave his talent for writing and illustrating much greater exposure. With the Second World War, Elisabeth and their children emigrated to Canada, while Gibbings taught book design and production at the University of Reading. In 1939 he built himself a punt, the Willow, and floated down the Thames. His observations on the countryside, the river and its natural history, were the fruits of gentle months spent on the Thames, accompanied by sketch pad and microscope. Written at the time of the Battle of Britain, the book captivated readers, acutely aware that the world it portrayed was in imminent danger of being wiped out. Its eager reception led to Coming down the Wye, Lovely is the Lee and Coming down the Seine. The bearded figure of Gibbings became a familiar sight on British television, as was his voice to radio listeners, and massive sales of his books. David Attenborough remembers Gibbings as being one of the inspiring influences at the start of his career. In keeping with his rather turbulent life, Gibbings relied on the companionship of Patience, Elisabeth’s younger sister, in the closing stages of his life. He died at Long Wittenham on the banks of the Thames in January 1958. [3]