Robert Richmond Campbell (1902-1972), artist and gallery administrator, was born on 18 July 1902 in Edinburgh, eldest son of Alfred Richmond Campbell, commercial traveller, and his wife Isabella Jane, née Thompson. Educated locally at George Watson's College and at Wallasey Grammar School, Cheshire, England, in 1916 Bob migrated with the family to Brisbane where he worked as a commercial artist. Determined to become a painter, he moved to Melbourne and from 1922 to 1940 lived mainly from his art.

The financial success of his first exhibition, at Sedon Galleries in 1928, enabled him to travel to Europe with Rupert Bunny. Campbell lived in Paris and London, and sketched his way through France, Spain, England and Scotland. Influenced by...