Notes
Provenance:
Burwood House sale, Esher, October 1927
The Georgian Galleries, London
The Walkinshaw family of Edinburgh
Sold Dowells auction house, Edinburgh, July 1937, Lot 129
Doig, Watson and Wheatley, Edinburgh
Collection of Colonel RM Guild, Edinburgh, August 1937.
Note:
We are indebted to the research of a number of authorities, including J Craig Nannos (Col. Retd), Professor Gregory Urwin of Temple University, Philadelphia, JA Houlding, Ed Brumby, René Chartrand and Ian McCulloch.
Potential confirmation of the identity of the sitter is born out by a similar painting of a British Officer, with the same face, also said to be a portrait of Major Patrick Campbell, now in the de Young Collection, San Francisco, (the San Francisco painting, 85 1/8in x 60 1/4in) which was previously attributed to Copley, before losing that attribution in 1972 when the renowned Copley scholar Jules Prown concluded it differed from Copley''s style "in its muted and soft coloration, the gentle treatment of the background and the absence of the strong value contrasts."
This of course, is entirely true when considering Copley''s career as a portraitist in America. His later, London paintings though are very different. So the question of the date and the place at which the work was executed becomes crucial and it is necessary to look at the history of the sitter, along with the provenance of both paintings.
The San Francisco painting of Major Campbell was put up for sale in 1927 and purchased by The Georgian Galleries of King Street London, from a sale at Burwood House, Surrey. As much is stated in an advertisement in the Connoisseur magazine for October 1927 (illustrated below). It also states that the view is of Barcaldine Castle, Campbell''s ancestral home. Burwood was purchased in 1927 by the 1st Lord Iveagh (Cecil Guinness), who died that same year.
It is also clear from the advert that by this time the painting had been sent by the Georgian Galleries to New York for sale, presumably on account of it being thought to be by Copley. Bought as such by the collector Warner S McCall of St Louis, it was sold by the John Levy Gallery of New York to Mr and Mrs Edmond Herrscher and presented by them to the de Young in August 1933.
The Sitter
Patrick Campbell of Barcaldine, the supposed sitter in both portraits, was the third son of Duncan Campbell of Barcaldine and Glenure. It would appear that Patrick''s father, Duncan, fell out with three of his other sons, all of whom who joined the military and died while in service.
Patrick Campbell obtained a lieutenant''s commission in the 103rd Regiment of Foot toward the end of the Seven Years'' War in 1762, aged around seventeen. The regiment was sent to Belle-Îsle, off the coast of Brittany.
In 1763, at the end of the Seven Years War, aged 18, Campbell became a compulsory ''reduced'' half-pay lieutenant, but was keen to re-join the regular army. His uncle, the wealthy Scottish businessman Robert Campbell, based in London, suggested that the boy might be found another commission -but his father Duncan thought otherwise; it was too expensive. Instead, Patrick was called back to the Highlands and operated a cattle-droving partnership.
His ambition, however, was to return to the army. Eight years later, in November 1775, he got his wish when, aged around 28, raising a Highland ''levy'' of infantrymen, he purchased a commission in Colonel Simon Fraser''s newly formed 71st Highland Regiment, with the rank of captain.
It seems possible that the San Francisco picture was painted for Patrick Campbell to mark his being commissioned into the army in 1775. Paid for perhaps by his wealthy uncle Robert, who had backed the idea all along.
The view of Barcaldine Castle of course looks nothing like the castle today. Abandoned in 1735 it fell into ruins (being bought back by the Campbells in 1896 and rebuilt). The landscape though does seem to marry up with that around Barcaldine and has a look of the west Highlands. It also has something of the Roman Campagna and this too would work with ascribing it to Copley in 1775, when the influence of Italy was fresh in his mind.
Having purchased his commission, Patrick would have had almost six months in London before the regiment sailed in April 1776 and it is possible that during this time that his portrait now in San Francisco was painted.
The fact that the portrait would have been painted in London and not in America, would explain its style. Copley''s style changed completely in London where he arrived in 1774 before setting off for the continent, where he remained until September 1775. On his return, according to the scholar of Copley''s English style, Emily Ballew Neff, he aligned himself with the Reynolds camp. He would thus have been working in London at his new studio in George Street from October 1775, at precisely the same moment that Patrick Campbell was there as a newly commissioned officer. We know that Copley was looking at the work of Reynolds at this time. There is also no doubt that the painting now on offer is by an artist who has absorbed the teachings of Reynolds. Such an opinion has recently been expressed by Professor David Mannings of Aberdeen University, a world authority on Reynolds, who also offered the opinion that the painting might easily be the work of Copley.
For relevant comparisons of light, shade and handling see Copley''s ''Mrs Seymour Fort'' of c1778 in Connecticut and ''Clark Gayton, Admiral of the White of 1779'' in NMM Greenwich. The 1777 painting of ''The Copley Family also bears comparison.''
Major Campbell''s pose is a cross between the Apollo Belvedere and the statue of Octavian in Rome in the adlocutio pose adopted by commanders when addressing their troops. Having just been in Rome, Copley would have been acutely aware of such antique sculpture.
So how do we happen to have two paintings of Major Campbell? The answer surely lies in Campbell''s own story.
In April 1776 Fraser''s Highlanders, now the 71st foot, mustered at Glasgow and arrived in August 1776 at New York.
Doubts have been raised as what appear to be dark blue, dark green, or even black facings on the officer''s coat in both paintings, as the facing colour of the 71st was white. We do know though that, although he does not wear the short Highland regimental version of the red coat, the man depicted is an officer in a Highland regiment as he wears his sash on his left shoulder. Only Highland officers were granted this privilege, other officers wearing their sashes around the waist. Thus, the sitter is a conundrum.
It is possible though that from November to April 1775-1776, when the San Francisco portrait was painted, the facing colours of Fraser''s 71st had not yet been decided upon. What uniform then would Copley have painted his sitter in other than his old coat from his previous regiment, the 103rd? Although the uniform of the 103rd has yet to be visually documented, the leading expert René Chartrand has proposed that its regimental facing colour might have been a dark green, which fits with both of the portraits.
It is also not without significance that the coat in both portraits is firmly of the early 1768 pattern and indeed that the gorget is also larger than those worn during the Revolutionary War.
Patrick Campbell of Barcaldine commanded the Grenadier company of the 71st which formed part of a composite Highland grenadier battalion.
During its brief existence this 4th British Grenadier Battalion was active in the New York area. Campbell''s first action would have been the landing on Long Island. The Grenadiers also landed on Manhattan and supported the Light Infantry and 42nd Highlanders in the Battle of Harlem Heights.
Might not the smaller, Scottish portrait celebrate Campbell''s involvement in the assaults of the New York campaign? It shows a howitzer (French or American) and in the background what appears to be a siege gun, but the landscape is not specific. This second portrait might have been commissioned at the smaller scale to be transported by sea, the larger San Francisco painting remaining in London.
It might also be the case that the face in the smaller picture would have been modelled on that in the first as well as preliminary studies made from the original sitting in 1775. This would also explain the use of the dark facings in the second portrait as these would have been in Copley''s original notes for his first painting (the San Francisco portrait). Interestingly, the uniform coat is exactly the same in the two paintings with the epaulette hanging down on the left shoulder. Indeed in the Scottish painting, it is clear from a pentimento, that the artist has moved the original position of the fusil in order to reveal the epaulette more fully.
We know that Copley painted a posthumous portrait of the mother in a group portrait of ''The Pepperell Family of 1778'', using sketches he had made while she was still alive. David Mannings has also pointed out that it was Reynolds''s practice to paint smaller portraits which could be transported on board ship.
There appears to be one other portrait by Copley with exactly the same dimensions as the Scottish portrait, in which the sitter is depicted full length. This is the portrait of ''John Wombwell'' sold at Sotheby''s New York in 2009.
Wombwell was a merchant in Spain in the 1770s and it seems likely that his portrait might have been painted by Copley for export, around 1775. If Campbell''s portrait had a similar purpose, however, it never reached him, for by 1782 he was dead.
On October 26, 1779, through the sale of his farming interest in the Scottish Highlands, Campbell had put up £1,100 to purchase his promotion to Major. He then sailed south to participate in the British capture of Georgia, but ill health caused him to return north. He eventually found quarters in the house of Thomas Pearsall, a wealthy Quaker in New York and while there fell in love with Pearsall''s daughter Sarah. Despite her father''s opposition, the two were married on 1st January 1781 and that December had one son, named after Patrick''s father. Patrick''s health however, had suffered during his military service, and leaving the army to settle in New York, he died there in September 1782.
Interestingly, another portrait of Major Patrick Campbell of the 71st foot, a miniature, is featured along with the two portraits under discussion, in the Frick Art Reference Library, in which the sitter is wearing white facings. It bears a striking facial resemblance to both the Scottish and San Francisco portraits and it has been suggested that it might have been painted shortly before Campbell sailed for America.
