A GIFT TO THE MUSEUM OF ART PORTRAIT

OF JOHN CAMPBELL, 3RD EARL OF BREADALBANE

The Museum is pleased to announce the gift of the Portrait of John Campbell, 3rd Earl of Breadalbane, painted in 1738 by the Scottish portrait painter Allan Ramsay (1713–1784), generously provided by Mr. Christopher J. Brown of Sarasota. Though born in Edinburgh, Ramsay established a thriving London workshop where he mainly painted portraits of aristocratic Scots. One such sitter was the subject of the Museum’s new painting, John Campbell, 3rd Earl of Breadalbane and Holland (bap. 1696, d. 1782). Campbell was an important figure in English diplomacy and politics. In 1720 Campbell was appointed ambassador to the court of Denmark, and while in Copenhagen, he was styled Lord Glenorchy and invested with the Order of the Bath, an English chivalric order. He wears the pink and white robes of the Order in this portrait, as well as a golden chain on which the insignia of the order hangs, and, also, a massive tassel. Campbell was married in 1730 to Arabella Pershall (1702/3–1762), and the following year became ambassador to Russia. Ramsay painted two portraits of Arabella around 1740—you can visit one of those two portraits at the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Conn., although the second of the two portraits of Arabella remains in the private collection. John Campbell, 3rd Earl of Breadalbane is a fine addition to the Ringling’s collection of eighteenth-century English portraits, which already includes works by Reynolds, Gainsborough, Lawrence, Raeburn, and Watson, as well as a full-length portrait attributed to Ramsay. With its compelling physiognomy, intriguing sitter, and elaborate costume, this work will surely be at home in the gallery devoted to English portraits of the eighteenth century.