Crawhall's love of horses is palpably expressed in this portrait of a racing horse. The artist would look at an animal or bird for as long as an hour. Sometimes he would make notes in a sketchbook, but more often than not he would memorise the form and colour.

Born to a wealthy family in Morpeth, Crawhall was able to devote his life to his two passions: hunting and painting. His father was a cultivated man and an amateur artist, and he encouraged his son to draw. Following the marriage of his sister to the architect brother of EA Walton, Crawhall moved to Glasgow to continue his studies. In 1879, Guthrie, Walton and Crawhall worked together at Roseneath and Brig o’Turk, repeating the exercise in 1881, with Harry Spence. Upon until 1882, Crawhall had been working in oil, but after a spell in Paris, he returned to work in watercolour. From 1882-83, Crawhall worked closely with The Boys at Cockburnspath, and in 1884, visited Lavery in Morrocco. He was thus closely involved in the early years of The Glasgow School, despite differing from the others in his preference for gouache and body-colour, rather than oil. Crawhall was an unorthodox artist: he would work in short bursts following long periods of inactivity, and rarely worked from nature, relying instead upon his extraordinary visual memory. Most at home in the country, Crawhall developed a fluent, almost calligraphic way of painting, where each cursive brushstroke tells as an individual mark. This artistic talent, combined with his deep understanding for animals, turned Crawhall into one of the greatest draughtsmen of his generation.