Design and Art Australia Online

cartoonist, painter, illustrator, professional photographer and teacher, was born in Jersey, Channel Islands, son of Captain Rose Campbell and Elizabeth, née Sutherland. He began to study art at the age of nineteen, first under Sir William Allen PRSA at the Trustees’ Academy, Edinburgh, then in 1842 at the Royal Academy Schools, London, on a ten-year studentship. After four months at the Liverpool Academy in 1846 he entered the life-school of the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin. Two of his paintings were hung in the London Royal Academy’s annual exhibitions: Christ and the Two Disciples Journeying to Emmaus (in 1847) and The Prisoner (in 1848).

In October 1852 Campbell came to Victoria on board the Cossipore , accompanied by his wife Eleanor and their young family. He planned to set up as a portrait painter. Within a few months he was part of Melbourne’s art community and in April 1853 was involved in the establishment of the short-lived Fine Arts’ Society. Oil portraits of Mr John Cosgrave and Mrs Cosgrave painted in 1854 (SLV LT) are competent but wooden with particular attention being paid to the depiction of the clothes. A landscape in English Picturesque tradition executed that year, Hobson’s Bay from the Flagstaff, Melbourne (o/c, SLNSW DG), demonstrates his attempts to come to terms with the foliage and light of his new home.

In 1854 Campbell exhibited at the Australian Museum, Sydney, in the preliminary exhibition of works to be sent to the Paris Universal Exhibition. His 'crayon’ (pastel) portraits, Sir Alfred Stephen , A Lady , Master Mort and Infant with an 'Hindoo Bearer’ , were reviewed in the Sydney Morning Herald on 5 December 1854. He moved to Sydney in 1855 and was elected honorary secretary of the Sydney Sketching Club in 1856 (the president was Conrad Martens ). He showed life-sized oil portraits of Sir Charles Nicholson and Sir Charles FitzRoy at the Fine Art Exhibition at the Sydney Mechanics Institute in January 1857. A life-size oil of Governor-General Sir William Denison, painted in 1858 for the Sydney Exchange Company, was conceived as a companion portrait to that of Sir Charles FitzRoy already hanging in the building. He also painted landscapes in Sydney.

In 1859 Campbell set up a photographic practice, announcing in the Sydney Morning Herald of 28 November that, having removed from Macquarie Street to the Phoenix Chambers, George Street (formerly the Empire Office), 'he intends to carry on the various branches of Photography in conjunction with his professional practice’. 'Photography’, he continued, 'is becoming better understood and more interesting day by day, and there is little doubt that it will ultimately hold an important position in the “world of art”. Mr Campbell will, therefore, devote as much as practicable of his knowledge and experience as an artist to the production of Photographic Pictures, and will endeavour in every way to make them deserve that name’.

He perhaps went farther afield in search of portrait commissions as well, since in 1861 he exhibited a portrait of the late John Portus, a Maitland businessman, in the Industrial Exhibition at the Maitland School of Arts (which was awarded a certificate of merit).

Having a wife and nine children to support by 1864, Campbell also supplemented his income by working as a newspaper illustrator on the Sydney Punch where he was principal cartoonist in 1864-65, e.g. Her Majesty’s Customs Establishment on the Murray 12 November 1864, 196 (pen and ink version in album DG SSVIB/29). In April 1865 he returned to Melbourne as principal cartoonist for Melbourne Punch , where he worked for two years (1865-67). Examples include Illustration 8 June 1865, a comment on the unseemly conduct of the Victorian Parliament (Caban 1983, 10), and The Shocking Example 1867, NLA negative 436/50. Then he followed Nicholas Chevalier as illustrator on the Melbourne Illustrated Australian News remaining a major contributor until 1876, when he succeeded Thomas Clark as drawing master at the National Gallery School, Melbourne.

Melbourne University owns his ink & gouache view of men pegging out a claim c.1860-70 (ill. Hansen). He drew the frontispiece for the 1870s satirical weekly Touchstone (see Caban 1983, 12). His cartoons and illustrations are signed with a monogram of a tiny 'O’ above a larger 'R’ cradled in a 'C’ (Mahood; Caban 1983, p.12; Melbourne University).

In April 1865 he returned to Melbourne as principal cartoonist for Melbourne Punch , where he worked for two years. Later he followed Nicholas Chevalier as illustrator on the Melbourne Illustrated Australian News , remaining one of its major contributors until 1876. Examples include Post Office [in bush town] – Arrival of the weekly mail 12 August 1871, p.157 (initialled 'ORC’).

At the 1866 Melbourne Intercolonial Exhibition, Campbell showed a portrait of Charles Summers, the sculptor of Melbourne’s Burke and Wills monument, and at the 1869 Public Library Exhibition he was represented by Absent Thoughts and a watercolour of Cape Schanck lighthouse. From 1870 until 1873 he was president of the Victorian Academy of Arts. He and Secretary James Robertson persuaded the Melbourne Public Library to provide a room for the society’s first exhibition in November 1870. In it Campbell showed The Man with the Muck-Rake (for sale at £60), a subject from Bunyan. This oil received favourable critical attention, and it was reproduced in the Illustrated Australian News on 2 January 1871. He also showed a sketch for a large picture of Christ Healing the Sick , a portrait of the art critic, James Smith, and a watercolour design for the seal of the Public Library of Victoria.

At the academy’s next exhibition (1872), Campbell showed Gathering Wildflowers and two watercolours: The Duke of Gloucester Impeaching Hastings ('well conceived’) and Timber Slide, Dandenong Ranges . Another oil, Laban’s Daughters , ('representing two female figures, with a tent and two figures in the background’), shown at both the 1872 Victorian Intercolonial Exhibition and the 1874 London International Exhibition, was not much liked: 'the flesh tints of the female figures are good, but the artist is certainly faulty in his anatomy … The effect of the picture is spoiled by the cold blue sky and the inattention to details of scenery’. First at the Tryste , Helene and the Origin of Painting (1876, cat. 63, 30 guineas) and Crossing the Plains were shown in 1875 76. In 1877 he showed The Lady Grace and The Origin of Painting (again). The latter, a version of the popular neo-classical subject, was subtitled: 'It is said that a young Greek girl, seeing the shadow of her lover’s profile on the wall, endeavoured to preserve it by tracing the outline, and that this was the first step towards the study of Painting’. It was sent to the Sydney International Exhibition in 1879-80.

Campbell continued to exhibit with the VAA until 1882, despite resigning as president after disagreements with the council about its financial arrangements. The many history paintings he continued to produce during this period are known only from newspaper reports and exhibition catalogues. His greatest success was an award for his entry in the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. The Melbourne Public Library used his design for their seal, and he designed many other medals (and certificates of merit), including those awarded at the 1878 Australian Juvenile Industries Exhibition, Ballarat, and at the Melbourne Intercolonial and International exhibitions of 1872, 1875 and 1880.

Campbell succeeded Thomas Clark as drawing master of the School of Design at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1876. He remained in this position until his death. His teaching stressed the importance of the study of anatomy, figure drawing and perspective, as well as of copying works in the gallery’s collection. In 1878 he obtained a human skeleton and a collection of drawings of muscles for student use. As a teacher, he was a controversial figure with a narrow and old-fashioned approach. In 1879 80 he was involved in a disagreement over an out-of-hours life class organised by Tom Roberts, Frederick McCubbin and others. Campbell considered such practices potentially dangerous. Threatened with dismissal, some of the rebels appealed to the trustees. Despite the support of a majority of the students, Campbell was forced to start a life-drawing class. He did commend the formation of a sketching club by the design students in 1880 (later the Victorian Sketching Club) where 'every month each member must bring an original design before me to criticize’.

A further controversy, relating to the collection of fees for his classes, erupted in 1882, but again he retained his position. Due to Campbell’s ill-health, McCubbin was appointed acting master of the School of Design in 1885 and he succeeded as master when Campbell died. Campbell died at his home, Lochend, in Punt Road, St Kilda, on 18 March 1887.

Writers:

Jones, Shar

Date written:

1992

Last updated:

1989