William Aikman (Scottish, 1682–1731) Portrait of Margaret Campbell, née Leckie

William Aikman (Scottish, 1682–1731) Portrait of Margaret Campbell, née Leckie (1674-1711), and her Eldest Son John Campbell (1696-1746)

Oil on canvas
50 x 40 in. (127 x 101.6cm)
Executed circa 1710-1720.
Housed in a period giltwood frame.

Provenance

By family descent to Captain Robert Archibald James Montgomerie R.N. (1855 - 1908) of Edinburgh.
To his son Captain Robert Victor Campbell Montgomerie-Charrington, 1st Life Guards, of Newport, Rhode Island.
Thence by family descent.
Private Collection, Massachusetts.

Note

This very early work by Aikman was painted around the time the artist was first coming to the attention of Daniel Campbell, who fostered his career and eventual success in London. Aikman here presents us with Campbell's first wife, Margaret Leckie, the daughter of John Leckie of Newlands. Together, they had three sons and three daughters. When Margaret died relatively young, Daniel remarried. The portrait of Daniel Campbell featured on the cover of Joanna Hill and Nicholas Bastin's biography of Daniel Campbell (A Very Canny Scot: “Great” Daniel Campbell of Shawfield & Islay 1670-1753, Two Plus George Ltd, 2007) may have been the pendant to the present work. The couple's eldest son and Daniel's heir, John Campbell is featured by Margaret's side. John eventually married Lady Margaret Campbell, daughter of the Earl of Loudon. As they had no children and she died young, he remarried to Lady Henrietta Cunninghame, daughter of the Earl of Glencairn, with whom he had three sons: John, Daniel and Walter.

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