GIBSON, RICHARD, an English painter, commonly called the Dwarf, was originally page to a lady at Mortlake, who, observing that his genius led him to painting, had the generosity to get him instructed in the rudiments of that art. Having devoted himself to Sir Peter Lely's manner, he copied his pictures to admiration, especially his portraits; and his paintings in water colours were also esteemed. He was in great favour with Charles I. who made him page of the back stairs; and he had the honour to instruct in drawing Queen Mary and Queen Anne when they were princesses. He married one Mrs Anne Shepherd, who was also a dwarf, on which occasion King Charles I. honoured their marriage with his presence, and gave away the bride. Mr Waller wrote a poem on this occasion, entitled The Marriage of the Dwarfs; in which are these lines:
Design or chance makes others wive,
But nature did this match contrive;
Eve might as well have Adam fled,
As she deny'd her little bed
To him for whom heav'n seem'd to frame
And measure out this only dame.
Mr Fenton, in his notes on this poem, observes that he had seen this couple painted by Sir Peter Lely; and that they were of an equal stature, each being three feet ten inches high. They had nine children, five of whom arrived at maturity, and were well proportioned, being of the usual standard of mankind. But what nature denied this couple in stature, she gave them in length of days; for Mr Gibson died in the seventy-fifth year of his age, and his wife
having survived him almost twenty years, died in 1709, aged eighty-nine.