page_title: Richard Gibson (painter)
section_title: Style
hierarchical_section_title: Richard Gibson (painter) / Style
context_page_description: Richard Gibson, known as "Dwarf Gibson", was a painter of portrait miniatures and a court dwarf in England during the reigns of Charles I, Oliver Cromwell, Charles II, and William III and Mary II.
  Both Andrew Marvell and Edmund Waller wrote poems addressed to him.
context_section_description: The Grove Dictionary of Art states that "the miniatures assigned to Gibson are characterized by the thick pigment and parallel striations that give his work an impastoed quality". His colours are typically soft and muted, anticipating the miniaturists of the 18th century. During the 1650s Gibson may have become so successful that he had to employ assistants, suggested by the existence of "Gibson-style but not Gibson-quality works" at this period. His children might have learned their skills this way. He also seems to have been adopting a "brighter palette" at this time, to suit the tastes of the Restoration court. W. Sanderson's book Graphice (1658) describes Gibson as one of the most eminent of modern "limners".
  Art historians John Murdoch and V. J. Murrell say that the distinguishing feature of Gibson's style is the "diagonal striation in the flesh painting".
  Even by the naked eye, the coloured strokes of the brush over the carnation ground can be seen to consist of long broad hatches, which have often the tendency, especially in the flat plane of the forehead and the shadowing of the throat below the chin line, to move in diagonal parallel groups of hatches, stroked downwards from right to left....[Gibson's paint] is "impasted" in the manner of oil painting and is quite different from the traditionally transparent and linear technique of the limners.
  These techniques probably imply the influence of Lely. His adoption of a more "wide eyed" look in his Restoration-era works may also show the influence of Lely.
caption: Miniature of an unknown gentleman in armour by Gibson
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