"Cows" en grisaille 
Thomas Craig (1849-1924)
Oil on canvas, signed l.l.
14-1/2 x 18-1/2 inches  (19 x 23 w/frame)

Known for his bucolic landscapes with grazing cows, Thomas Bigelow Craig was born in Philadelphia and spent the first 40 years of his life there until 1889. Later he moved to New York City where he stayed until 1899. Finally he settled in Rutherford, New Jersey, but maintained a summer studio in Woodland Valle, New York.

Though primarily self-taught, Craig did study at the Pennsylvania Academy and began exhibiting there in 1869. He was also active in the Philadelphia Sketch Club, 1873 to 1876, which suggests he was a student of Thomas Eakins.

Craig became known for his paintings of grazing cows, quiet streams and highlighted pastures, all which were hallmarks of his work.

He was a member of the National Academy, Salmagundi Club and Artists Fund Society and exhibited at those venues as well as at the Pennsylvania Academy, Philadelphia Art Club, Philadelphia Exposition, Art Institute of Chicago, Boston Art Club, Brooklyn Art Association and Society for Independent Artists. His paintings were featured at the National Academy of Design for forty-five years.

He also exhibited at the Boston Art Club, the Brooklyn Art Association, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago (1893), and was a member of the Salmagundi Club, the Artists Fund Society and the Chicago Watercolor Club.

Today, his work is in the Butler Institute of American Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Newark Museum, the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, the Mobile Museum of Art, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts