Campbell, John Henry (1757–1828), landscape painter, was born in Herefordshire, England, the county of origin of both his parents; his mother's maiden name was Beaumont. His father left Herefordshire to enter into a partnership with the Dublin printer Daniel Graisberry (qv). Campbell received his artistic training at the Dublin Society's School, after which he established himself as a topographical landscape artist, painting scenes of the Dublin and north Wicklow areas. In the early stages of his career he also produced oval head-and-shoulder portraits in watercolour; his signed portraits of the Caulfeild family of Benown, Co. Westmeath, dated 1786, are a good example of his style. In 1800 he submitted to the exhibition held at Allen's at 32 Dame Street, Dublin, and in 1801 he exhibited two landscape drawings at Parliament House. He submitted a further two landscapes in 1802, and two more in 1804, and from 1809 to 1819 he was a regular exhibitor. Having contributed to the RHA's inaugural exhibition in 1826, with a painting entitled ‘Moonlight’, he submitted six views in 1828. He greatly admired the work of Paul Sandby RA (1725–1809), whose paintings he copied. He died 10 May 1828.
Of his children, John Campbell, one of two sons, was a resident of Belfast, where he worked as a designer of patterns for damask and linen, while his daughter 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.