Artwork Information

Often referred to as the ‘Father of Auckland’, John Logan Campbell was a Scottish doctor with sound business acumen who came to New Zealand in 1840 to make his fortune. Establishing himself as a merchant, he achieved financial success, political recognition and a reputation as a city benefactor - it was on his initiative that Auckland’s earliest public art school, now Elam School of Fine Arts, was founded in 1879. Campbell also bequeathed his One Tree Hill estate (Cornwall Park) to the city. He was 92 at the time this portrait was painted and died two years later in 1912. (Chic Colonials: Ataahua, 2003)