Born: 1791, Ireland
Died: 4 June 1857
Country most active: Ireland
Also known as: Cecilia Margaret Campbell
This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Frances Clarke. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Cecilia Margaret Campbell (1791–1857) became a landscape painter. Trained by her father, in 1809 she began her career as an exhibitor in Hawkins Street, Dublin; she went on to exhibit with the RHA between 1826 and 1847. Although she was known primarily as a watercolourist, she did occasionally, like her father, work in oils. She also modelled flowers in wax. In 1826 she married the animal painter George Nairn ARHA. A number of her paintings are now in the Ulster Museum, including her ‘View of the Giant’s Causeway’. Her children John Campbell Nairn and Anna Langley Nairn, later Armstrong, both practised as artists.