Description:Portrait of the bust of a child of about four years old with brown hair and a dark blue jacket with a white shirt and a lace collar.
History:Nicola Marschall ("Painter of the Confederacy") was a noted painter at this time, traveling throughout the South after the war to acquire commissions. There is a photograph from this period in basically the same pose, and it is speculated that the portrait was painted not long after the subject's death and after the end of the Civil War.
Notes:Subject was the son of Mary Alicia Jackson (Gibson) (1833-1886) and Nathan Gibson (1827-1878). Mary Alicia Jackson (Gibson) was the wife of Nathan Gibson. Robert Gibson was her first born child who died at the age of four years and two months. This portrait was passed from her to her daughter, Jane Gibson (Morgan), to her daughter, Mary Gibson Morgan (Van Zandt), to her son, Thomas Kelly Van Zandt, Jr. to the current owner, his daughter.
