Artists

Walter Gilbert

1871–1946

Panels of Trades and Labour and Signs of the Zodiac
© the copyright holders. Image credit: Jennette Russell / Art UK

Panels of Trades and Labour and Signs of the Zodiac 1933

Walter Gilbert (1871–1946) and Bernard George (1894–1964) and Charles Henry Mabey Junior (1867–1965)

Sculptor, metalworker, designer, teacher and writer, born in Rugby, Warwickshire. He was educated at the Municipal School of Art, in Birmingham; at South Kensington; and in France, Belgium and Germany. Travelled widely in America and India. Taught at Rugby School and Harrow School. Gilbert, who wrote on industrial art, became art adviser to several major firms in this field and was a founder-member, and chief designer for, the Bromsgrove Guild. Ornamental metalwork for the council buildings in Dudley, Worcestershire, is by Gilbert, who was also engaged on aspects of the great gates at Buckingham Palace, Liverpool Cathedral and on war memorials in Liverpool, Burnley, Crewe, Troon, and elsewhere. Lived in Birmingham and London.

Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company)

Artworks by Walter Gilbert

  • Panels of Trades and Labour and Signs of the Zodiac
    Panels of Trades and Labour and Signs of the Zodiac Walter Gilbert (1871–1946) and Bernard George (1894–1964) and Charles Henry Mabey Junior (1867–1965)
  • Clydebank War Memorial
    Clydebank War Memorial Walter Gilbert (1871–1946) and James Miller (1860–1947)
  • Architectural Sculpture
    Architectural Sculpture Francis Derwent Wood (1871–1926) and Walter Gilbert (1871–1946) and Reginald Blomfield (1856–1942)
  • War Memorial
    War Memorial Walter Gilbert (1871–1946)
  • West Derby War Memorial
    West Derby War Memorial Walter Gilbert (1871–1946) and Louis Weingartner (1863–1934) and H. H. Martyn & Co. (active 1888–1971) and Fred Brown (active 1922)
  • Statue of Woman Carrying an Urn*
    Statue of Woman Carrying an Urn* Walter Gilbert (1871–1946)
    Royal Society of Arts
  • Royal Sussex Memorial – The Bugler
    Royal Sussex Memorial – The Bugler Charles Leonard Hartwell (1873–1951) and John William Simpson (1858–1933) and Walter Gilbert (1871–1946) and B. & W. Bennett
  • 2 more

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Walter Henry Gilbert [commonly known as Walter Gilbert] was born in Rugby, Warwickshire, England on 12 August 1871 and studied under Benjamin Creswick at Birmingham Municipal School of Art from 1890 to 1893 and at the National Art Training School in Kensington, London. He also studied art in France

In 1891 he was appointed Drawing Master at Rugby School and was later headmaster at Bromsgrove School. With William Whitehouse, he co-founded the Bromsgrove Guild in 1898 The partnership with Whitehouse was dissolved in 1906 and Gilbert formed a new partnership with William McCandlish. Gilbert left the Bromsgrove Guild in 1918 and joined H. H. Martyn a firm of stone, marble and woodcarvers specialising in gravestones, memorials, ecclesiastical decorations, decorative plasterwork, wrought ironwork and castings in bronze and gunmetal, with whom he remained until he retired in 1940.

Gilbert collaborated with Swiss sculptor Louis Weingartner, (1863-1934) on many commissions, including the Liverpool Cathedral reredos for Giles Gilbert Scott; the Victoria Memorial; and Buckingham Palace gates for Sir Aston Webb.

Gilbert exhibited at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists; Leeds City Art Gallery; and the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.

His death was recorded at Littlehampton, Sussex on 23 January 1946.

Text source: Art History Research net (AHR net)

Venues

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