[From the Community Collection, a public trust in Agincourt, Iowa]

CAMPBELL, Meriel Lambart [1912–1983]

“Cows in Winter”

1967

oil on canvas / 11.2 inches by 26.9 inches

Irish artist Meriel Lambart Campbell studied at the Royal Hiberbian Academy Schools in Dublin and the Slade School in London. She lived most of her artistically productive life in England.

By the end of the 19th century, the Royal Hibernian Academy had become “the leading Irish institution involved in promoting visual arts” in Ireland, though in the 20th century is was accused of being reactionary, hindering the development of Modernism in Ireland. Campbell’s attendance may have taken place during those years, but the Slade School of Fine Arts has a more progressive reputation which may be reflected in Campbell’s work of the 1950s and later. She was already over fifty years of age with a well established reputation when “Cows” was painted.