Guibal first studied under his father, sculptor Barthélmy Guibal, before finally turning to painting and working from 1740 to 1745 in the Paris atelier of Charles Natoire. Shortly afterwards, he travelled to Stuttgart, where the plans of the young duke Carl Eugen von Württemberg for his residences provided a lure even to foreign artists. Guibal soon won the favour of the prince, who sent him to Rome for further training in 1752-1754. There his work with Anton-Raphael Mengs would prove decisive. Mengs's orientation towards Raphael and antiquity and his eclectic treatment of his models struck him as worthy of imitation, and left a lasting influence on Guibal's own work. After his return to Stuttgart he was named painter to the court, and was involved in all the important decorative projects such as those of the palaces in Ludwigsburg and Stuttgart. Beginning in 1774 he taught at the Hohe Karlsschule, where he was named professor in 1776. Guibal's close indebtedness to Mengs is strikingly apparent in his portraits and detail studies, yet in his designs for ceiling paintings his understanding of large-scale decoration shaped in France finds expression.
