CRAWFORD, After Edmund Thornton (1806-1885)

View of Edinburgh, From the Castle

Edinburgh: William Fletcher, [no date but paper watermarked 1827]. Aquatint, printed in colours and finished by hand, by Robert Havell Jr. (Expertly repaired tear). Image size (including text): 10 3/8 x 16 inches. Sheet size: 15 13/16 x 20 3/4 inches.

An expertly fashioned view of Edinburgh and the Firth of Forth, aquatinted by Audubon's printer: Robert Havell.

Edmund Thornton Crawford was a Scottish seascape and landscape painter. He was initially apprenticed to an artisan painter but later studied at the Trustees Academy in Edinburgh under Andrew Wilson. In 1831 he paid the first of many visits to Holland to study the 17th century Dutch masters. The influence of Van de Velde in seascapes and Hobbema in landscapes is evident in his later work. There are elements in the present image which are also reminiscent of the work of Patrick Nasmyth. A contemporary gazetteer notes that 'Edinburgh presents, from almost every point of view whence it can be viewed such scenic and architectural groupings as are perhaps unrivalled in any existing city in the world. It possesses attractions peculiarly its own, and fixes the gaze and challenges the admiration of a spectator by displays of general excellence, unaided by the sumptuousness of any one object, and undergraded by the deteriorations from its prevailing style of magnificence.' (Fullarton [publishers] A Gazetteer of the World 1856, III, p.140).

Item #5668

Price: $1,500.00