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Seascape with Castle, Boats and Village in Distance

Artist: unknown

Seascape with Castle, Boats and Village in Distance

RSA Council Minutes of 1859-05-30 gives a list a list of works owned by the RSA which had been handed over to W B Johnstone RSA, Curator of the NGS…

RSA Council Minutes of 1859-05-30 gives a list a list of works owned by the RSA which had been handed over to W B Johnstone RSA, Curator of the NGS for hanging in the NGS (but emphatically still the property of the RSA).

'British Masters No.17' in that list is recorded as 'Dunstunbury Castle by E T Crawford RSA.'

This was probably one and the same as the painting by Crawford 'Duncansburgh Castle' which he exhibited at the RSA Annual Exhibition in 1851, cat 217. It cannot now be accounted for and may have already been lost before 1883 as it does not appear in the 'Catalogue of the Art Property belonging to the RSA,' published that year.

As the only potential candidate, the present picture was considered, however the significant topographical discrepancy in terms of the towered keep and adjacent settlement as depicted, to the isolated ruins of Duncansburgh Castle in Northumberland would appear to discount the present work as being the missing Crawford oil.

It may be a crude rendition of Ravenscraig castle near Kirkcaldy.

[RSA Documentation Officer, 2019-05-09]