Richard Henry Nibbs

{{short description|English painter}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

Richard Henry Nibbs (1816–1893) was an English painter and book illustrator who specialised in marine art.

Nibbs was born in Brighton, Sussex (now East Sussex), England and educated at a school in Worthing (run by the father of watercolourist Henry Tidey). He lived in Brighton throughout his life.Residing at 8 Howard Place, then 7 Buckingham Place from 1873 (according to the "Encyclopaedia of Brighton" by Tim Carder - 1990). Nibbs initially trained as a musician and became a professional cellist with the Theatre Royal orchestra. However, a lifelong love of art combined with a natural talent for detailed observation led him to become a self-taught painter - in both oils and watercolour - particularly of marine subjects. In 1840 a substantial inheritance allowed him to devote himself full-time to art.

His marine art depicts scenes mainly off the coast of his native Sussex, France and Holland - though he also drew buildings and landscapes. He exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy, the British Institution and the Royal Society of British Artists.{{cite web |last1=Nibbs |first1=Richard Henry |title=Exhibits at the Royal Academy 1841–1888|url=https://archive.org/details/royalacademyofar05grav/page/362/mode/2up?view=theater |access-date=28 January 2023}}{{cite web |last1=Nibbs |first1=Richard Henry |title=Exhibits at the British Institution 1841–1867 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.l0062392592&view=1up&seq=422 |access-date=28 January 2023}}{{cite book|last1=Johnson|first1=Jane|title=Works exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists, 1824-1893 and the New English Art Club, 1888-1917|date=1975|publisher=Antique Collector's Club|location=Woodbridge|pages=340–341}}