His greatest qualities were not those which proclaimed themselves the loudest, and that the merits by which he achieved his amazing popularity, sound and even commanding as they are, belong less to the technical excellences which raised him to his pinnacle than the appeal they made to the understanding, not necessarily artistic, of the people. Though Sir John Gilbert practised art in many of its branches, it is only in one — and that not, in the public estimation, the one by which he defied the rivalry of all comers — that he showed himself head and shoulders above the draughtsmen of his time. Distinguished as he was as a painter, whether in oil or watercolour, it is in virtue of his achievements in black-and-white that he takes his place among the few masters, not of his age and country only but of all time, who, through the medium of the hand or printing press, have ranged themselves among the highest. — 1897 Magazine of Art.

Biographical Materials

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  • Paintings

    • Illustrations

    Novels from Dickens and Scenes from Periodicals

    W. Harrison Ainsworth's Rookwood, A Romance

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    Daniel Defoe's Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe

    Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White

    Bibliography

    Ainsworth, William Harrison. Rookwood, A Romance. Illustrated by George Cruikshank. London: William Macrone, 1836, and Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, 1834. 3 vols.

    Ainsworth, William Harrison. Rookwood, A Romance. Illustrated by John Gilbert. London: Routledge, 1849.

    Ainsworth, William Harrison. Rookwood, A Romance. Illustrated by Sir John Gilbert, R. A. London: George Routledge, 1878.

    Bucklow, Spike, and Sally Woodcock, eds. Sir John Gilbert, Art and Imagination in the Victorian Age. Farnham: Lund Humphries, 2011. [Review by Laurent Bury].

    Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White. With eight illustrations by F. A. Fraser and frontispiece by Sir John Gilbert. London: Sampson Low, 1861; rpt., Chatto & Windus, 1875.

    Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White. Ed. Maria K. Bachman and Don Richard Cox. Illustrated by Sir John Gilbert and F. A. Fraser. Toronto: Broadview, 2006.

    De Foe, Daniel. The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Written by Himself. Illustrated by Gilbert, Cruikshank, and Brown. London: Darton and Hodge [1867?].

    Dickens, Charles. Bleak House. Illustrated by F. O. C. Darley and John Gilbert. The Works of Charles Dickens. The Household Edition. New York: Seldon and Company, 1863. Vols. 1-4.

    Dickens, Charles. Dombey and Son. Illustrated by F. O. C. Darley and John Gilbert. The Works of Charles Dickens. The Household Edition. New York: Sheldon and Company, 1862. Vols. 1-4.

    Dickens, Charles. Little Dorrit. Illustrated by F. O. C. Darley and John Gilbert. The Works of Charles Dickens. The Household Edition. New York: Sheldon and Company, 1863. Vols. 1-4.

    Dickens, Charles. Martin Chuzzlewit. Illustrated by F. O. C. Darley and John Gilbert. The Works of Charles Dickens. The Household Edition. New York: Seldon and Company, 1863. Vols. 1-4.

    Dickens, Charles. Nicholas Nickleby. Illustrated by F. O. C. Darley and John Gilbert. The Works of Charles Dickens. The Household Edition. New York: W. A. Townsend, 1861. Vols. 1-4.

    Dickens, Charles. The Personal History and Experience of David Copperfield the Younger. Illustrated by F. O. C. Darley and John Gilbert. The Works of Charles Dickens. The Household Edition. New York: Seldon and Company, 1863-1867. Vols. 1-4.

    "Sir John Gilbert R.A, P.R.W.S. A Memorial Sketch." Magazine of Art 22 (1897-98): 53-64. Internet Archive version of a copy in the University of Toronto Library. Web. 1 February 2015.


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