Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Campbell, Thomas (1790-1858)

1340302Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 08 — Campbell, Thomas (1790-1858)1886Warwick William Wroth

CAMPBELL, THOMAS (1790–1858), sculptor, was born in Edinburgh on 1 May 1790. His parents were in humble circumstances, and he had no education; but on being apprenticed to a marble-cutter he displayed intelligence and skill, and was enabled to come to London to study at the Royal Academy. In 1818 he received assistance which enabled him to visit Rome, and there he devoted himself to sculpture, associating chiefly with Italian and German artists. One of his first productions was a seated statue of the Princess Pauline Borghese (now at Chatsworth). In 1827 he sent from Rome his first work for exhibition in the Royal Academy—a bust of a lady; and in 1828, a group representing ‘Cupid instructed by Venus to assume the form of Ascanius.’ In 1830 he returned to England, having large commissions to execute there, but he still frequently visited Rome, where he retained his studio. During the last twenty-five years of his life he resided in London, and exhibited various works at the Academy (among others, a marble statue of Psyche) up to 1857, though his exhibitions were less frequent during the latter part of this period. He died in London on 4 Feb. 1858, having gained a considerable reputation and acquired a large property by his labours. Campbell was a painstaking and careful sculptor. He worked both in bronze and marble, devoting himself chiefly to busts (some of which were colossal) and to portrait statues, though he also executed imaginative statues and groups. In addition to his works already referred to may be mentioned: (1) A marble bust of Lord George Bentinck, preserved in the National Portrait Gallery at South Kensington; (2) the monument to the Duchess of Buccleuch at Boughton; (3) a statue of Queen Victoria, at Windsor Castle; (4) the monument of Sir William Hoste in St. Paul's Cathedral; (5) a marble statue of the Duke of Wellington, made for Dalkeith Palace, the seat of the Duke of Buccleuch, near Edinburgh; and (6) a statue of a Shepherd Boy in a Phrygian Cap (probably Ganymede): this statue was executed at Rome in 1821, and was deposited at Rossie Priory, the seat of Lord Kinnaird, near Dundee.

[Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists; Nagler's Künstler-Lexikon; Annual Register, 1858, c. 389; G. Scharf's Cat. of Nat. Portrait Gall.; Waagen's Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain (1857), pp. 435, 445.]