Description

Extended Data

DAAO URL

https://www.daao.org.au/bio/francis-gilbert

Birth Place

Chichester, Sussex, England, UK

Biography

painter, amateur photographer, teacher and surveyor, was born on 19 November 1820 in Chichester, Sussex, second son and fourth child of Joseph Francis Gilbert and Jane, née Snelling. He came to Victoria in November 1841 with his elder brother, George Alexander Gilbert, and the two were living together at Melbourne in 1843. Gilbert became tutor to some of the children of Joseph Docker at Wangaratta, then, in about 1846, to the family of John Cotton. Of an inventive disposition like his father and brother, Frank Gilbert made daguerreotype portraits at Cotton’s station in February 1847 (using Cotton’s photographic equipment) and Cotton also commented that Gilbert 'fancies he can draw and paint, but has little taste in this way’. Gilbert subsequently lived in Geelong and worked as a surveyor. In 1875, at Frank’s Fine Art Gallery, Malop Street, Geelong, he exhibited eleven English and colonial landscape views which he and other members of his family had painted, to be disposed of by an art union. This entry is a stub. You can help the DAAO by submitting a biography. Writers: Staff Writer Date written: 1992 Last updated: 2011

Born

b. 19 November 1820

Summary

As tutor to John Cotton, he used his employer's photographic equipment to make daguerreotype portraits but later moved to Geelong to work as a surveyor. Unfortunately, an art union disposed of eleven landscape paintings that he had exhibited in 1875.

Gender

Male

Died

1879

Age at death

59