Collections

Album of Sketches and Prints by Patrick Gibson RSA

Artist: Gibson, Patrick, RSA · 1775-1829

Album of Sketches and Prints by Patrick Gibson RSA

It is unclear whether the Album was compiled by Gibson himself but it contains work in a variety of media by him, including landscapes and views of…

It is unclear whether the Album was compiled by Gibson himself but it contains work in a variety of media by him, including landscapes and views of buildings.

Some of these latter relate to the suite of six etched plates after his drawings of Edinburgh Buildings which were published by J Pillans and Sons in late December 1817; titled "Select Views in Edinburgh; consisting chiefly of prospects that have presented themselves and Public Buildings that have been erected in the course of the recent improvements of the City, accompanied with historical and explanatory notices."

Indeed the album carries an inscription to its inner front board that reads; "Gibson's Etchings of Edin/ various states".

Five of the six plates to Gibson's book had already been, or were about to be, demolished, making these studies an important historical record, pre-photography, of Edinburgh's built heritage.

The RSA also holds a copy of Gibson's book (2014.438).

The historical interest in the works which feature buildings which were demolished as part of the improvement plans carried out in the city in the early nineteenth century would have held an obvious appeal for the architect and town lanner Sir Frank Mears PPRSA, the son-in-law of that great town planner Professor Patrick Geddes HRSA, who gifted the album tot he RSA Collections in 1950.

Other works in the Album reveal Gibson as a recorder of landscapes.