Joseph Crawhall RSW (British, 1861-1913)


Souvenir of a Tough Day signed, inscribed and dated 'Souvenir of a "TOUGH DAY"/E.A.Hunt/from/J.Crawhall/Nov 10th - '91'oil on panel26.2 x 34 cm. (10 1/4 x 13 3/8 in.)
|ProvenanceWith Robertson & Bruce Ltd., DundeeJoseph Crawhall's earliest Tangiers pictures date from 1887, when he is known to have visited in the company of Robert and Edwin Alexander. It became a favourite destination for Scottish artists including Alexander Mann, Lavery, Kennedy, Melville and Denholm Armour. There are various theories as to what may have attracted Crawhall to North Africa, including the essays written by his friend RB Cunninghame Graham, but most likely he relished the cheap cost of living (six shillings a day, including servants and access to two horses) and a warm dry climate which was beneficial to his fading health. Despite his reserved nature Crawhall was a central figure at the British Legation, which had a bustling social scene largely centred around horses, hunting and 'field sports' such as polo and pig sticking. He also rode with the 'Tangiers Hounds', and Cunninghame Graham recalls Crawhall as a rather dissolute character, often to be seen at the club sipping whiskies in faded pink hunting jacket (V Hamilton, Joseph Crawhall, one of the Glasgow Boys, Glasgow Museums, 1990).This picture is a fascinating rediscovery in that Crawhall had largely abandoned oil painting by circa 1884. It is (precisely dated and) dedicated to his friend the American painter Edmund Aubrey Hunt, who had moved to Tangiers in 1885. Although Crawhall's movements around this time are not known it is likely to have been painted in Morocco, or in Spain (he had exhibited bull fighting subjects painted at Algeciras that year).