John Campbell, 1st Baron Campbell of St Andrews (1799-1861) Lord Chancellor

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

The original ‘oil on canvas’ portrait on which this mezzotint engraving is based was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1853.

Lord Campbell’s portrait is now in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London. It was given to the Gallery by the Society of Judges and Serjeants-at-Law in 1877 but it is currently on display at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. The oil portrait was painted in 1850, after March that year when, at the age of 70, Campbell became Lord Chief Justice. He held this office until 1859.

Sir Francis Grant, son of a Scottish Laird, took up painting professionally after having exhausted his £10,000 inheritance by his late 20s. An early enthusiasm for fox hunting led him to settle at Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, the centre of hunting society, where he studied under the well-known sporting painter, John Ferneley. In 1840 Grant’s portrait of Queen Victoria riding with Prime Minister Lord Melbourne and others in the Great Park at Windsor established his reputation and he soon became one of the most fashionable society painters of the day. He was elected a member of the Royal Academy in 1851 and its President in 1865. Grant died at the age of 75 and was buried at the cemetery near his country residence at Melton Mowbray.
Thomas Lewis Atkinson was a line and mezzotint engraver, based in London. He was a pupil of the well-known mezzotint engraver Samuel Cousins (1801-1887). Atkinson exhibited 41 works at the Royal Academy between 1857 and 1889. He mainly engraved portraits and sentimental subjects after works by contemporary artists, such as John Everett Millais and George Richmond.

People

John, 1st Baron Campbell of St Andrews Campbell (1779 - 1861)

Places

Subjects

quill, ink pot/ink stand, book, male portrait, wig, legal bands, Baron, Solicitor General, Lord Chief Justice of England, Member of Parliament, Lord Chancellor, armchair, table (as Subject)

Materials & Techniques

mezzotint

Artist

Sir Francis Grant (1803 - 1878)
Thomas Lewis Atkinson (1817 - 1889/90)

Title

John Campbell, 1st Baron Campbell of St Andrews (1799-1861) Lord Chancellor

Date

published 10 August 1852

Medium

Mezzotint

Acquisition

Purchased from Mrs Dorothy Lane, February 1958

GAC number

4480