John Simpson (artist)

Simpson was born in London in 1782 and was a student at the Royal Academy and for some years an assistant to Sir Thomas Lawrence, PRA. He obtained some success as a portrait-painter, and eventually a very large practice. From 1807 to his death he was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy and other exhibitions. In 1834 he received a commission to go to Portugal, and painted portraits at Lisbon, where he was appointed painter to the queen of Portugal.

Late 19th-century biographer Sidney Lee was of the opinion that Simpson was "rather a skillful portraitist than an artist and that his portraits are not without power, but lack instinct and penetration." One of John Burnet, the engraver, is in the National Portrait Gallery. William IV and many notable persons in his day sat to him. Simpson died at Carlisle House, Soho, in 1847. He left two sons, who practised as artists, of whom Charles Simpson died young in 1848, having contributed a few landscapes to the London exhibitions. The other, Philip Simpson, was a student at the Royal Academy, and obtained some success for small domestic subjects from 1824 to 1857. One of these, called ‘I will fight,’ exhibited in the Suffolk Street Gallery in 1824, is in the Townshend collection at the South Kensington Museum. Copies of records found in ancestry.com suggest that Simpson had four sons and two daughters: Philip (1802-1854); Mary Georgiana (1804-1886); George (1805-1864); Selina (1807-1821); Richard Leslie (b.1809 - year of death not recorded); and Charles (b. 1812 - year of death not recorded). Georgiana, who appears to have outlived them all, may be the 'Miss Simpson' referred to in the article by Martin Postle. (see below)

The Captive Slave

Simpson's painting The Captive Slave was acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago in 2008 — it had not been displayed to the public for 180 years.[1] Reviewer Martin Postle concludes:

Despite enduring critical neglect and eventual obscurity, Simpson was a gifted artist, capable at times of venturing beyond the parameters of society portraiture and his position as a studio assistant. And in one particular work, The Captive Slave, John Simpson produced a painting of iconic status, which can be regarded today as his masterpiece and as a worthy emblem of the aims and achievements of the Abolition Movement.[1]

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1897). "Simpson, John (1782-1847)". Dictionary of National Biography. 52. London: Smith, Elder & Co.