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, 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, filling sketchbooks with drawings that are 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, and letters from her brother Joseph II (a good friend of the Punch artist Charles Keene) show the closeness of the family, often relating news of the young artist, Joseph III. Mary travelled 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. 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.
