Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gibson, Thomas (1680?-1751)
GIBSON, THOMAS (1680?–1751), portrait-painter, drew portraits well, and the accessories as well as the expression were attractive. According to the painter Highmore, Sir James Thornhill [q. v.] sometimes applied to Gibson to sketch for him in his large pictures figures in difficult action. Vertue, who was on terms of great friendship with Gibson, says that other artists were offended with Gibson because he refused to raise his prices. He further says he was a man of most amiable character, but suffered from ill-health, and for this reason about 1730 disposed of his pictures privately among his friends, and retired from practice to Oxford. He subsequently returned to London, and is said to have resumed his practice. He died in London on 28 April 1751, aged about 71. At the Society of Antiquaries there is a portrait of Vertue by Gibson, painted in 1723 (engraved by Vertue himself); at the Royal Society a portrait of Flamsteed the astronomer; at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, portraits of Flamsteed and John Locke; and at the National Portrait Gallery a portrait of Archbishop Wake. Many of his portraits were engraved by J. Faber, J. Simon, G. White, G. Vertue, and others, including Sir Robert Walpole, Admiral Sir Charles Wager, Dr. Sacheverell, Robert, lord Molesworth, and the Rev. Samuel Clarke.
[Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, ed. Dallaway and Wornum; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Chaloner Smith's British Mezzotinto Portraits.]