Kemble, the great tragedian, is shown in Roman costume, head turned slightly to the right, on a rectangular base with sunk band in front. There is some severity of outline, particularly in the face which suggests a classical influence. The hair is barely modelled on the top or the back of the head and the face is very smooth and strong in aspect.

John Gibson was introduced to Kemble through Solomon d’Anguiler of Liverpool and produced this bust in 1814. In a letter of 1862 Gibson recalled: ‘It is the only bust modelled of John Kemble - he sat to me at Liverpool when I was very young' (Gibson to Scarf, National Portrait Gallery Archive). It seems that casts were made for Kemble’s admirers and there is another example in the collection of the Garrick Club (Scupture S0063), with an identical inscription. Gibson also produced the bust in bronze, minus the socle and drapery, in herm form, perhaps in part inspired by the stark head of Napoleon by Chaudet (the bronze is in the National Portrait Gallery NPG 149) It was the bronze 1814 bust which probably inspired Flaxman's head of the actor, of which there a model in the Soane (M1143).

In the 1820s Maxim Gauci published a print of this costumed bust titled below 'John Phillip [sic] Kemble in the Character of Cato. Taken from a Bust by J. Gibson Esq. of Rome' and dated 20 February 1823 (the actor died on 23 Feburary in Lausanne). The print celebrated Kemble in the title role of Joseph Addison’s play Cato, a Tragedy, (1712) about the Roman soldier and senator Marcus Porcius Cato. Kemble first played the part at Drury Lane on 28 April 1784, and again on 15 November, a year after his first appearance at Drury Lane as Hamlet. He played Cato again in a revival of the play a the Covent Garden Theatre on 26 January 1811 and repeated the role another 16 times that season and 5 the next.

Kemble reappeared as Cato at Covent Garden in May and June 1817, choosing it as one of the parts he wished to play in his final season. He retired from the stage on 23rd June, his final part being another legendary Roman leader, Coriolanus.

Sir Thomas Lawrence immortalised Kemble's success in the role in his painting of the actor in costume 1812 and is said to have commented 'There had been no other such countenance on the stage as that of Kemble. If 1000 men were collected together you wd be struck with the face of Kemble' (quoted by Farington, Diary, 16 July 1810).

Soane saw Kemble and his sister Sarah Siddons, whose life mask (M466) is also in the collection, act in celebrated performances and attended Kemble’s farewell dinner on leaving the stage. Soane also acquired Kemble’s copy of the First Folio of Shakespeare.

This bust is displayed in Soane's Museum as part of an arrangement on the central table in the Basement Ante Room. It sits between two busts of imperial Romans – perhaps a reference to Kemble's fame as an interpreter of the roles of great Romans, such as Cato and Coriolanus (in Kemble's own adaptation of Shakespeare's play).

The work is not mentioned in the 1835 edition of the Description of Soane's house but is listed in the inventory of 1837. It therefore appears to have entered the collection c.1835-1837.

Roberto C. Ferrari and M.G. Sullivan, ‘‘Men thinking, and women tranquil’: John Gibson’s Portraiture Practice’, in Tate Papers, no.29, Spring 2018, https://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/29/john-gibson-portraiture-practice, accessed 6 September 2021

M1143, same subject
SDR11, same subject