Born 20 August 1861 at Morpeth, Northumberland. He trained at King's College London before going to Paris to work with Aimé Morot in 1882. Although strictly an English painter, during the 1880s and 90s he became associated with The Glasgow Boys, and was given his first solo exhibition by the celebrated Glasgow dealer, Alexander Reid. The best known public collection of his work can be found in the Burrell Collection, also in Glasgow. Despite having had little formal training, he developed his natural talents under the influence of artists such as James Guthrie and E.A. Walton. After abandoning oil-painting in the mid-1880s, Crawhall became one of the most accomplished watercolourists of his generation. He specialised in animal subjects, mainly horses and birds.