Landscapist George Frederick Buchanan was based in Edinburgh when he first exhibited at the Scottish Academy in 1841. He had moved to Glasgow by 1842 and to London in 1848, although his subjects remained mostly Scottish landscapes. He then exhibited at the Royal Academy, British Institution and Society of British Artists in London, and at the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, and the Glasgow Institute. He moved regularly to different addresses, living in Mayfair, the City and Belsize Park, to escape creditors. In 1854 he appeared at the ‘Court of Relief of Insolvent Debtors’ in Lincoln’s Inn and in 1861 was imprisoned at the ‘Debtor’s Prison for London and Middlesex’, when his estate and effects were seized. He exhibited nothing after 1865.
