Provenance:

Private Collection, UK

Exhibitions:

Royal Academy, 1890, no. 1245

Literature:

Exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy, London, 1890, no. 1245, p. 40

Description:

One of six children, Croft’s father, John, was an architect and the young Arthur seemingly gained important early experience with watercolour by colouring his father’s architectural drawings. Croft received no formal training as an artist but he was a keen traveller and explorer, visiting and painting in amongst others, Switzerland, Algeria, America and New Zealand. He exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1868 and 1893 and during this time began to experiment with painting larger and larger watercolours. In 1883 he exhibited the largest watercolour ever to be shown at the Academy (over 2.5 m high).

Arthur married American heiress Caroline Brewer after meeting her on a painting tour of Europe. Subsequently, he moved to New York and kept a studio where he continued to work. After their return to the UK they purchased the South Park estate in Wadhurst and built a house designed by his architect brother, Adolphus. Extraordinarily, Croft was never elected to the Society of Painters in Watercolour but he was an important member of the Alpine Club, which holds a number of his watercolours. After his death his estate was dispersed and his paintings were highly sought after, fetching large sums of between 50 and 200 guineas.

These spectacular views, previously identified as Victoria Falls are in fact definitely of Niagara, due to the distinctive horseshoe shape of the Falls seen from the rapids at the top. Their scale would also suggest that they were Academy paintings. The ‘noise’ that one feels from the paintings is palpable and one can get a good sense of the sheer scale and weight of water that cascades over the falls. During these later years of the 1880s Croft exhibited a number of views of the USA so the identification of Niagara would also fit in with his travel at this time.