1790 - 1858

Sculptor. Born in Edinburgh, he was apprenticed at an early age to a marble cutter, but the patronage of Gilbert Innes, Depute-Governor of the Bank of Scotland, allowed him to study at the Royal Academy in London, which he entered in 1818. He was employed, while attending the schools, to the sculptor Edward Hodges Baily. Later in 1818 Campbell travelled to Rome, where he received commissions from fellow Scots visiting Italy, and was to stay there until 1830. He was heavily influenced during these years by Antonio Canova and Bertel Thorvaldsen, becoming one of the most accomplished British sculptors working in the international neo-classical style. Whilst in Italy, his career was considerably advanced by the patronage of the 6th Duke of Devonshire. In 1830 he returned to London, setting up a studio there. Perhaps the finest example of his Canovesque manner is the seated figure of Pauline Borghese (1824-40) at Chatsworth, Derbyshire. In tomb sculpture, his most ambitious monument is that to the Duchess of Buccleuch (1827) at Warkton, Notts. His public statues include that of the 4th Earl of Hopetoun standing with his horse (1824-34) in St Andrew’s Square, Edinburgh, and that of Lord George Bentinck (1851), in Cavendish square, London (see entry). His private portrait commissions include the statue of of the son of the young Alexander Fitzgerald Kinnaird in the guise of Ascanius (1822), and many busts.