sketcher, was the second daughter of Robert Campbell and Sophia , née Palmer. She was born in London on 24 February 1812, when the Campbells were on a visit from Sydney. In 1847 her brother George gave her an album which she filled with pencil and watercolour sketches by her friends, her teacher and presumably herself (no attributed works are signed). From the evidence of the sketchbook it appears she had lessons from Conrad Martens who taught the daughters of many of the colony’s leading citizens in the 1840s. Paintings and sketches by Martens are numerous; so are lesser attempts in his style by an obvious pupil. Two pencil sketches, unsigned but presumably by Campbell, Duntroon N.S. Wales Decr 1841 and Canberra Church 26 August 1844 , are the earliest known views of the Canberra district (her father owned Duntroon). Their naive style when contrasted with later pencil sketches such as North Shore from 'the’ Garden and To the Wharf, both drawn from her Sydney home in 1850, suggests that the lessons from Martens occurred in the interim.
Apart from these youthful sketches no paintings or drawings are known. Sophia Ives Campbell was later considered by the family to have been far more fond of riding than of sketching. She inherited the property Delegate, in southern New South Wales, but after becoming arthritic lived mainly in Bournemouth, England, until her death in 1891.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
