Alexander Nasmyth

Commissioned as one of a pair, together with a signed View of Crosbie Castle in Ayrshire, with the Isle of Arran beyond, by John Craufurd of Auchenames and Crosbie (1780–1858);

By descent to his son, Edward Henry John Craufurd (1816–1881);

By descent to his daughter, Katherine Yseult Craufurd (b. 1866);

Thence by family descent.

John Craufurd inherited the Auchinames and Crosbie estates in Renfrewshire and Ayrshire from his uncle, John Craufurd (circa 1742–1814). The surviving ruins of Portencross Castle, located in Portencross village, North Ayrshire, are believed to date from the middle of the 14th century and had been granted to Hugh Craufurd in 1263 by King Alexander. The castle and its estate remained in the Craufurd (or Crawford) family, heads of the Clan Crawford, until the early twentieth century.

An acquaintance of Charles Eastlake and Joseph Severn at Rome, John Craufurd served as a local magistrate in Ayrshire, and treasurer to the Ionian Isles.

The pendant to this painting, a View of Crosbie Castle in Ayrshire, with the Isle of Arran beyond by Nasmyth, was sold in these rooms in 2014.¹

¹ Oil on canvas, 111.8 x 168 cm.; Sotheby's, London, 10 July 2014, lot 239, for £60,000.