About this artwork

This group shows Emma and Julia, the two youngest daughters of Lady Charlotte Campbell, sister of the Duke of Argyll, and her first husband Colonel John Campbell of Shawfield. Bartolini described the girls as ‘dancing a waltz’, an action skilfully conveyed by their graceful, tip-toe poses and gently wafting draperies. Commissioned by their elder brother, the finished marble was shipped from Livorno to Edinburgh, and was installed in the dining room at Inveraray Castle, the seat of the Dukes of Argyll. The base is inscribed with a dedication to the English sculptor John Flaxman, whose engravings of Homeric subjects Bartolini greatly admired. This is the most important piece of Italian sculpture carved for a Scottish patron in the nineteenth century.

Updated before 2020

  • artist:
    Lorenzo Bartolini (1777 - 1850) Italian
  • title:
    The Campbell Sisters dancing a Waltz
  • date created:
    1821 - 1822
  • materials:
    Marble
  • measurements:
    170.00 cm (figure height); 92.00 cm (base height)
  • object type:
  • credit line:
    Purchased jointly by the National Galleries of Scotland and the Victoria and Albert Museum, with the aid of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Art Fund (with a contribution from the Wolfson Foundation), and a donation in memory of A. V. B. Norman, 2015
  • accession number:
    NG 2876
  • gallery:
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Lorenzo Bartolini

Lorenzo Bartolini