John Gibb

John H. Gibb (2 April 1831 – 10 September 1909) was a Scottish-born New Zealand landscape painter famous for his paintings of New Zealand's coast. Biography He was born in Cumbernauld, Scotland. Early in his life, Gibb had shown a natural aptitude for drawing and painting that was encouraged by his family. By 1849 he was receiving tuition in the studio of John McKenzie of Greenock, Scotland. His first wife was Agnes Crighton whom he married in 1852. Agnes died in 1855 during childbirth. He married for a second time, to Marion Menzies, his cousin in 1857. The River Clyde and the environs of the Firth of Clyde were the focus of Gibb's paintings during the 1850s, 60s and early 70s. In 1861 he began exhibiting at the Royal Scottish Academy. Gibb settled in the village of Innellan, near Dunoon on the Firth of Clyde, briefly moving to Alnwick in Northumberland around 1865. Gibb had returned to Innellan by 1868, the year he began exhibiting at the more progressive Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts. The Gibbs had the heartbreak of 3 daughters dying of scarlet fever in 1873. Gibb emigrated from Scotland to New Zealand in 1876 with his wife (died 27 May 1891), and four sons. They travelled on the vessel Merope and arrived in Canterbury in September, 1876.