John Crawford Wintour , R.S.A (1825-1882)
John Wintour was a landscape-painter, was born in Wright's Houses, Edinburgh, in October 1825. His father, William Wintour, was a working currier; his mother, Margaret Crawford, a farmer's daughter. At an early age Wintour exhibited a talent for drawing, and after entering the Trustees' Academy, he made rapid progress and became a favourite with his master, Sir William Allan.
Wintour's art occupies a distinct place in Scottish landscape painting. Beginning with his own feeling for nature, he received an impulse from Constable, which resulted in effects similar in kind to those of the French romantics of 1830, who had also been influenced by the English painter's work. Perhaps his finest period was around 1870, when he painted the ‘Moonlight’ at Killiecrankie and the ‘Border Castle;’ but, while his latest pictures were often careless in draughtsmanship and handling, his special qualities of colour and design culminated in the ‘Gloamin on the Eye,’ painted two years before his death.