Edmund Thornton Crawford RSA (1806–1885) was a Scottish landscape and marine painter. Crawford was born at Cowden, near Dalkeith, in 1806. He was the son of a land surveyor, and when a boy was apprenticed to a house-painter in Edinburgh, but having evinced a decided taste and ability for art, his engagement was cancelled, and he entered the Trustees' Academy under Andrew Wilson, where he had for fellow-students David Octavius Hill, Robert Scott Lauder, and others.

William Simson, who was one of the older students, became his most intimate friend and acknowledged master, and from their frequent sketching expeditions together Crawford imbibed many of the best qualities of that able artist. His early efforts in art were exhibited...