Traditionally linked to the group of artists known as the Glasgow Boys, Joseph Crawhall was working in and around Glasgow at the turn of the century. These young artists reacted against the highly detailed and minutely finished anecdotal pictures then so fashionable. Instead, they believed that art should be about light, colour, design and composition - qualities which are the essence of Crawhall's work. He specialized in painting animals and birds and after 1893 he travelled frequently to Morocco and Spain. The last years of his life were spent in Yorkshire.