This page is a work in progress, and will be updated with additional information about Sir Alfred Gilbert.

Relationship to john william waterhouse:

Fellow artist.

Brief Biography:

GILBERT, Sir Alfred, R.A. (1854-1934)

Sculptor of portrait and figure subjects in bronze, marble, terracotta, etc. and ornamental designer in the Art Nouveau style. Born in London on 12th August 1854. Studied at Heatherley's School from 1872, under Boehm at the R.A. Schools, at the École des Beaux Arts Paris 1875-78, and in Rome 1878-84. Exhibited at the R.A. from 1882. Elected A.R.A. 1887, R.A. 1892, resigning 1909. Professor of Sculpture R.A. 1900-09. Among his best known works are Shaftesbury Fountain at Piccadilly Circus, Duke of Clarence Tomb at Windsor and the Queen Alexandra Memorial at Marlborough Gate. Lived in Belgium and Italy for some years, returning to England in 1926. Re-elected R.A. 1932 and knighted the same year. Died in London on 4th November 1934.

Source: Dictionary of British Artists Working 1900-1950, Grant M. Waters, Eastbourne, 1975.

R.A.: Royal Academy

DOCUMENTED RELATIONSHIP:

- A recent biography of Gilbert describes him as being "socially and professionally connected to... John William Waterhouse":

I also suggest that Gilbert was likely to have been sympathetic to Aestheticism because one of his peers at the Royal Academy Schools was John William Waterhouse, another subsequently key figure within Aestheticism, as Peter Trippi's recent account of the painter has revealed. Whilst the relationship between Gilbert and Waterhouse remains to be more fully researched, it is implicitly clear from Gilbert's own account that the two artists saw the world in similarly Aesthetic terms. After all, Gilbert might have been describing Waterhouse's later Narcissus when he told McAllister how, during his time in Italy in the late 1870s and early 1880s, he had stumbled on a 'youth leaning over and very earnestly beholding his reflection' in a 'crystal clear' stream 'as in a mirror'. This was a 'modern rendering of an ancient fable', according to Gilbert, of 'Narcissus to the life, falling in love with his own image; mistaking it for that of a being surpassing all that he could imagine of his own beauty'.

Source: Alfred Gilbert's Aestheticism: Gilbert Amongst Whistler, Wilde, Leighton, Pater and Burne-Jones, Jason Edwards, Ashgate Publishing, 2006

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