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Lot Essay
The only other known work signed by the artist is in the collection of Tate Britain, and depicts Aeneas and his family fleeing burning Troy, 1654.
Karen Hearn has noted of the artist that he was 'at various times both an alderman and mayor of Canterbury, Kent. He signed his own pedigree at the Heralds' Visitation of Kent, made in 1663, and a comparison of that signature with that on Aeneas and his family fleeing burning Troy confirms that they are by the same hand: in both, the 'H' and the 'e' in 'Henry' are elided, so that the 'e' disappears.' (Karen Hearn, 'An English gentleman painter, Henry Gibbs', The Burlington Magazine, February 1998, pp.99-101). The inscription recorded on the relining canvas of the present work also elides the 'H' with the 'e' in 'Henricus', suggesting that the copyist has been faithful to the artist's original inscription.
Karen Hearn has noted of the artist that he was 'at various times both an alderman and mayor of Canterbury, Kent. He signed his own pedigree at the Heralds' Visitation of Kent, made in 1663, and a comparison of that signature with that on Aeneas and his family fleeing burning Troy confirms that they are by the same hand: in both, the 'H' and the 'e' in 'Henry' are elided, so that the 'e' disappears.' (Karen Hearn, 'An English gentleman painter, Henry Gibbs', The Burlington Magazine, February 1998, pp.99-101). The inscription recorded on the relining canvas of the present work also elides the 'H' with the 'e' in 'Henricus', suggesting that the copyist has been faithful to the artist's original inscription.