Biography and current catalogue for

Robert Houston after Joseph Crawhall RSW (1891-1942) 

ROBERT HOUSTON RSW (1891-1942) Houston was born in Kilbirnie, Ayrshire on 5th June 1891. He studied at Glasgow School of Art, where he was a contemporary of Gordon Thomas. Painter in oils and watercolours of landscapes, mainly coastal scenery and lochans and figurative subjects. He painted in a powerful style, mainly landscapes of the west coast and western isles. He was also a noted aquatintist and designed and executed railway posters, for which his strong sense of design and use of solid colour was ideally suited. He was elected to membership of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours in 1936. He exhibited widely, at the Royal Academy (6 works), Royal Scottish Academy (8), RSW (11), Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts (34). He is represented in Glasgow Art Gallery & Museum. JOSEPH CRAWHALL Born in Morpeth, Crawhall was one of the most talented and highly regarded artists ever produced by Scotland. His favourite subjects were horses, dogs and other animals, often painted on linen or silk. He is recognised as one of the most important horse painters of the twentieth century and his intimate knowledge of animals and birds can also be clearly seen in his work. A great perfectionist, he once discarded a picture, retrieved from the waste bin by a friend, which later won a gold medal in Munich. This perfectionism, coupled with his early death, account for the small volume of surviving work. Exhibited RA (2), RSA (22), RSW (22), GI (8) & L (12), and is represented in the NGS, V & A, Glasgow AG, Kirkaldy AG and Newport AG.