Description

April 12, 1967 Dear Mr. Bowden: Lefevre F. Cranstone was an etcher as well as a painter employing a medium he called "fugitive etching." He was recognized in London as a painter of genre and historical subjects. Between 1845 and 1867 he exhibited at the Royal Academy, British Institution, and the Suffolk Street Gallery. Late in the summer of 1859, Cranstone came to the United States and from September through June of the next year he traveled extensively in the east and midwest making sketches of scenes that impressed him. Indiana University acquired 312 of his original drawings in 1944-1945. The drawings now at the Lilly Library were done in pen and ink with washes of brownish or bluish water color added. The subjects relate to Wheeling, West Virginia; Washington, D.C.; Niagara Falls; New York; Harpers Ferry; Cincinnati; other regions of Ohio; the Ohio River; and Richmond, Indiana. Some were dated 1859, others 1860, and many were not dated. The illustrations in the sesquicentennial catalog were not dated. The one on page 89 is a "Suspension Bridge. Ohio River Wheeling Virginia" and the one on page 90 is "at the wharf Wheeling Virginia." I am sorry that we do not have any further information on these illustrations. Unfortunately we have practically no biographical data on Cranstone. There is a note in our files that he was born in London and died in Australia, but no birth or death date was given. I wish we could supply you with more information....

Record Contributed By

Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library

Record Harvested From

Ohio Digital Network