Mary Elizabeth Crawhall (1835–1917) was part of the prominent Northumbrian Crawhall family, headed by her father, Joseph Crawhall I (1793–1853), a prosperous Newcastle ropemaker, alderman and amateur artist.
The family were artistically gifted and well connected participants in the thriving cultural life of 19th-century Newcastle. Mary Elizabeth's siblings were all artists: her brothers Joseph Crawhall II (a good friend of the Punch artist Charles Keene), Thomas Emerson, and George Edward, as well as her sister Jane. Her nephew, Joseph Crawhall III (1861–1913), is the best known artist of the dynasty, being closely associated with the Glasgow Boys.
Mary Elizabeth Crawhall is recorded as having travelled extensively and sketched everything she found of interest. Our drawings span the period 1884 to 1899, and her travels are principally in Italy—at Rome, Naples, Sicily, Piedmont, Venice, Florence, Pisa and Como. There are also views on the French Riviera at Nice, Cannes and Menton. The drawings were executed relatively late in life, in her fifties and sixties, but they are nevertheless full of spirit and vigour, both observational and illustrative.
Mary died a spinster 'of private means' in 1917, whilst living with her two servants at 7 South Bailey, a substantial townhouse in historic Durham. But it appears that she lived a full and well-connected life. She apparently travelled with her cousins—our collection includes a sketch at Monaco with an attached casino ticket granting entry for 'Mme Francois Crawhall et sa 2 cousines. 'Francois Crawhall' is possibly Mary's cousin Fanny Wooler Crawhall.
The letters of Joseph Crawhall II to his sister Mary show the closeness of the family, Joseph often relating news of his artist son, Joseph III. Our collection includes a group of sketches executed in Yorkshire in 1898, at the time when Joseph III was living with his parents and breeding horses at Husthwaite, along with brother Hugh. It is likely that Mary's travels to Yorkshire coincided with visits to family; one of the sketches at Burley Moor depicts three women in the landscape with the caption 'when shall we three meet again?'. Mary's lightness of both touch and palette in her sketches, at times displaying an impressionistic modernity, must surely have borne the artistic influence of her talented and innovative nephew.
