Colen Campbell

1676-1729. Scottish architect. Author of Vitruvius Britannicus (1715-1725).

Colen Campbell (1676-1729) is one of the most distinguished figures in early eighteenth-century architecture. He was born on 15th June 1676 as the eldest of four children to Donald Campbell, laird of Boghole and Urchany, and his wife Elizabeth. He appeared in Edinburgh in 1700 as a lawyer. However, he reinvented himself as an architect after the Act of Union, finishing his first building, Shawfield Mansion in Glasgow in 1712. Details about his architectural studies are mostly unknown. He became famous in England when he designed Wanstead House in Essex for Sir Richard Child (later known as the Viscount Castlemaine) in a simpler, more classical style.

In 1715, Colen Campbell published the first volume of the Vitruvius Britannicus, in which he speaks in favor of the Antique style, which was simpler and not as flamboyant as the Baroque style, and lauds the ‘renowned Palladio’. Hence, he is known for his Neo-Palladian style: he was the designer of many of the most important buildings of the movement. The Vitruvius Britannicus is a record of the principal private and public British buildings, prepared by a group of booksellers, and Campbell used this project as a means of self-promotion. He is listed as the author on the title page, and next to writing the introduction, it is assumed that he also wrote the brief texts accompanying the plates for each building. He was able to include many of his own designs, often dedicated to British Politicians powerful and influential enough to contribute to the cause of a new architecture.

In 1718 Campbell was appointed Chief Clerk and Deputy Surveyor-General. In 1719, Campbell became Architect to George Augustus, Prince of Wales (later the King George II) and was appointed by Richard Boyle, the third earl of Burlington to re-fashion his house in the Palladian style. This proved as a great chance for him to increase his popularity and establish himself as an architect. In 1717 and 1725, the second and third volumes of Vitruvius Britannicus appeared. Vitruvius Britannicus included illustrations of Campbells designs, attracting rich and influential patrons. Among those were for example the King George I, to whom the first volume of the Vitruvius was dedicated, and Sir Robert Walpole. In 1725, the book had a list of 692 subscribers, including five members of the royal family and many other nobles.

In 1726, Campbell was appointed Surveyor of Greenwhich Hospital. In 1728, he brought out a version of the first book of Andrea Palladio’s Quattro Libri, which was revised and published in 1729 as The Five Orders of Architecture, now including some of Campbells own designs. He died on September 13th in 1729 and was buried in the south cloister of Westminster Abbey. In the following years, he became more or less forgotten or simply connected to the Vitruvius Britannicus until in 1966 a large collection of his drawings was discovered, enlightening scholars about his designs. Only one portrait, in the plaster decoration of Compton Place in Sussex, is verified as a portait of Colen Campbell.

Buildings (overview):

Wanstead House, Essex, 1714

Burlington House, London, 1717

Stourhead, Wiltshire, 1721 to 1724

Pembroke House, Whitehall, London, 1723

Houghton Hall, Norfolk, 1722

Mereworth Castle, Kent, 1722

Waverley Abbey House, Surrey, approx. 1723

Compton Place, Eastbourne, Sussex, 1726

Sources:

Connor, T. P. “Campbell, Colen, of Boghole and Urchany (1676-1729)”, in: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2010. https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-4485?rskey=C7jz8m&result=1 . Accessed 16 Jun. 2019.

Curl, James Stevens and Susan Wilson. “Campbell, Colen”, in: A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. 3rd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2015, online. https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199674985.001.0001/acref-9780199674985-e-801?rskey=AarmDj&result=3 . Accessed 16 Jun. 2019.

"Palladianism." Britannica Academic, Encyclopædia Britannica, 17 May. 2016. academic.eb.com/levels/collegiate/article/Palladianism/58116. Accessed 16 Jun. 2019.

Summerson, John. Architecture in Britain: 1530 to 1830. Harmondsworth, Middlesex and others: Penguin 1963.