Robert Gibb (painter)

He was made a full member following the enormous success of his 1881 painting The Thin Red Line which was inspired by his reading of Alexander Kinglake's book The Invasion of the Crimea.

Three years later came Schoolmates depicting two highland officers in the heat of battle, one falling wounded into the arms of the other.

In 1895, he was appointed Principal Curator of the National Gallery of Scotland, following the death of Gourlay Steell, and served in this role until 1907.

Gibb was also sought after also as a portrait painter and among his subjects were Henry M. Stanley, the African explorer, the Rev.

Joseph Parker, D.D., Sir Arthur Halkett, Bart., and the artist's wife, the former Margaret Shennan, second daughter of the Lord Dean of the Guild, whom he married in 1885.