Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wintour, John Crawford
WINTOUR, JOHN CRAWFORD (1825–1882), 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, entering the Trustees' Academy, he made rapid progress and became a favourite with his master, Sir William Allan [q. v.] From the time he was seventeen he maintained himself by miniature and portrait painting, and by making anatomical diagrams for the university professors. He also painted a few figure pictures, notably one or two of fairy subjects, which, although immature in many ways, are remarkable for beauty of colour and grace of composition. About 1850, however, he turned his attention to landscape, in which he found his real vocation. At first his landscapes were somewhat flimsy and superficial, but during the next few years he seems to have come under the influence of John Constable (1776–1837) [q. v.], and his work gained in strength and evinced a closer study of nature. In 1859 Wintour was elected an associate of the Royal Scottish Academy, and two years later he spent the autumn in Warwickshire. From this date his pictures became more personal in feeling, broader and more expressive in handling, and richer in colour and composition.
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 about 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. For a number of years his health had been failing, his self-control was not what it might have been, his associates were not of the best, and when, on 29 July 1882, he died, medical examination revealed a tumour on the brain. An exhibition of nearly 150 of his pictures and drawings was held in Edinburgh in 1888. The catalogue contains a portrait of Wintour, reproduced from a photograph, and a critical and biographical note by P. McOmish Dott.
Wintour was married to Charlotte Ross, but had no family. His widow survived him a few months.
[Catalogue of Loan Exhibition of Wintour's Works, 1888; Scottish Art Review, July 1888; Academy, 16 June 1888; Blackwood's Magazine, March 1895; information from relatives.]