International studio (60.1916/1917)

The Art of Joseph Craw ha It



“A LINCOLNSHIRE MEADOW” OIL PAINTING BY JOSEPH CRAWHALL


one was to lock Crawhall in a room with paper and
drawing materials, and then the drawing would be
forthcoming.
In this matter of non-production, Crawhall’s
entire lack of the merely commercial instinct
may be gauged from the fact that if he were
interested in children, he would make drawings
for them in their scrap-books, which were as
distinguished and as complete as any of his exhibited
pictures. He would make these masterly sketches
while the children sat on his knee, and would at
times go on for hours producing picture after
picture, with the result that much of his best work
is to be found scattered throughout the country in
the books of those who as children were entertained
by him >in this way.
His technical skill was not disturbed by such a
fact as a broken wrist. While he had his right arm
in a sling Mr. Walton put some paper before him
and asked him how he would be able to draw with
such a handicap. Crawhall took a pen in his stiff
hand and made several beautiful and skilled draw-
ings. Being unable to turn his hand he was obliged
to keep the paper spinning with the left so as to
get it at different angles. “ I told him,” said Mr.

Walton, “ that if he had lost both hands he would
still be able to draw and paint with his foot.”
Crawhall replied that he thought it would be rather
an improvement 1
During his stay of about three months at Paris
in the year 1887 Crawhall attended daily at one of
the ateliers, but the methods practised there had
little interest for him, and his studies from the nude
were totally different in treatment from those of the
other students. His independent outlook was in
no way affected by the minutely modelled drawings
around him. An interesting collection of sketches
made during the Paris sojourn was unfortunately
lost or stolen prior to his leaving the city. These
drawings consisted of a curious variety : horses and
dogs seen in the streets and many wild animals,
foreign birds and reptiles seen at. the Jardin des
Plantes. Along with Mr. Whitelaw Hamilton he
frequently spent the afternoon at the Louvre,
where he was keenly attracted by the collection of
Egyptian antiquities. The direct simplicity of the
hawks, falcons, dogs, and figures deftly outlined on
the great granite sarcophagi and other objects
of those long-past times had a peculiar fascination
for him.

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