John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll and Greenwich

Inscriptionback to top

The campaign map is lettered and inscribed below: Plan du Camp de Prats del Rey 1711. followed by two columns of eleven illegible names, the left-hand lettered A-K, the right-hand 1-11; signed and dated, bottom right: T Bardwell pinxit 1740 (T and B in monogram).

This portraitback to top

The map refers to Argyll’s actions in Spain when he took up a fortified position at Pratz del Rey, near Igualada, Barcelona, in September 1711; following a bombardment by the French, little action seems to have taken place. [1] In 1740, the year NPG 3110 was painted, Argyll was dismissed from all his offices following his harsh but popular criticisms of the Walpole government.
A signed version, differing principally in the gesture of the right hand which is shown palm upwards, is at Beaulieu. [2] The Argyll family continued to patronise Bardwell who painted four of the Duke’s daughters 1747-50. [3]

Footnotesback to top

1) As described by D. Piper, Catalogue of the Seventeenth Century Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery 1625-1714, 1963, citing A. Parnell, War of the Succession in Spain, 1888, p 301, and R. Campbell, Life … of John, Duke of Argyll, 1745, pp 69-70.
2) M. Kirby Talley, Wal. Soc., XLVI, 1978, pp 129-30, no.6.
3) Ibid., p.91 and nos 39, 42, 67, 92.

Referenceback to top

Kirby Talley 1978
M. Kirby Talley, Wal. Soc., XLVI, 1978, pp 91, 111, 129 no.5.

Piper 1963
D. Piper, Catalogue of the Seventeenth Century Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery 1625-1714, 1963, p 12.

Provenanceback to top

[2nd Duke of Buckingham; Stowe sale, 21st day, 12 September 1848, lot 2, bought Morant for the Duke of Argyll, and said to have come to Stowe from Gosfield]¹ The Dukes of Argyll; Rosneath Castle sale, 7-11 October 1940, lot 1296; Appleby’s, from whom purchased 1942.

¹ MS note in NPG copy of the Stowe catalogue; Gosfield Hall also belonged to the Duke of Buckingham.


This extended catalogue entry is from the National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Later Stuart Portraits 1685-1714, National Portrait Gallery, 2009, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.

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