The quotations at the head of each section are taken from Graves' list of Royal Academy exhibitors, and represent the inspiration for the painting, as submitted to the Academy's catalogue by Eyre Crowe.

Title: The Vestal (1870)

Medium: oil

Exhibited: Royal Academy, 1870

Athenaeum, 21 May 1870:

Mr. Crowe's picture The Vestal (965) represents a vestal exercising her privilege of redeeming from death a person whom she might meet on the way to execution. The Virgin rides under a canopy, in a splendid, elaborately-cushioned pilentum, decorated with crimson and gold, and drawn by noble horses: she is dressed in white, crowned, and carries a palm: she is attended and guarded: a Christian has crossed her path, and she has claimed his release. He kneels, amazed at the event, and hails his deliverer; his dress is dark, with a white cross on the breast; about him stand guards, some with the standard of their legion and other symbols. There is much brightness in this picture, capital workmanship, complete telling of the story, and excellent drawing; nevertheless, it is injuriously affected by a certain hardness of the whole, and the opacity of parts which should be lucid. The expressions have been studied with honourable care and success.

Illustrated London News, 28 May 1870:

Mr. Eyre Crowe's 'Vestal' (965) ... [is] rendered less interesting and impressive than may fairly be expected ... by a certain commonplace feeling, which denies beauty and grace even where most desiderated.

Art Journal, June 1870:

'The Vestal' (965) by E. CROWE, assails the eye by raw crudity and violent contrast. The flesh is of brick-dust, and the general colour glaring. Throughout, delicacy has been sacrificed to power.

Title: Soldiers Meeting (1870)

Medium: oil on canvas

Size: 160 x 200 cm; 63 x 78¾ in

This painting shows a scene set in the mid 17th century. One man in a bedroom, wearing clerical clothes, is interrogated by a man wearing a long black cloak, who is brandishing something which had been concealed under the clothing of the cleric. Two soldiers are in attendance, one of whom is preventing a fifth man from entering the room. The subject matter of the painting is very much like that of Master Prynne Searching Archbishop Laud's Pockets in the Tower (1846); however, this painting is signed and dated 1870.

Called 'Scene Historique', this picture was auctioned at Hotel de Ventes VanDerKindere auctioneers, Brussels, on 8 May 2007, fetching EUR 3,500.

It was auctioned at Sothebys, New Bond Street, London, on 6 March 2008 (Sale L08133 'British and Continental Pictures', Lot 43), where it sold for £4,000. A colour image of the painting was published in the sale catalogue.

Title: Old Mortality (1871)

Medium: oil

Exhibited: Royal Academy, 1871

Athenaeum, 6 May 1871:

Old Mortality (39) shows the champion of decaying monuments kneeling before a stone which bears the, until now, time-defaced names of heroes; he is working industriously; his bag of tools is at his feet, his old white horse stands near, and grazes on the rank herbage of the cemetery. The grass is so thick, that 'Old Mortality' does not hear the approaching steps of Sir Walter Scott and his guide as they come near and watch him at work. The figures are too small. This is the sole fault of this capital picture. There is a good deal of quiet satire as well as pathos in the design ... There is capital colour in this work ... and great freedom of handling; more, indeed, than Mr. Crowe has previously shown. The chiaroscuro is so good that the picture would engrave well.

Art Journal, June 1871:

We are glad ... to find MR. CROWE in 'Old Mortality' (39) reviving the expectation raised by earlier works. The old man earnestly cuts away at a gravestone in a churchyard, while Sir Walter Scott looks on at the subject of his well-known story. The figure of the aged man is graphically delineated, and though the central colour be blue, the pictorial effect is good ... The painting throughout is solid and sound, and the artist for once gains character without falling into the grotesque.

Crowe recorded in his diary on 22 September 1902 that this picture was purchased from Agnew's at Waterloo Place by William Waring of London, who told him that he chose it because of the texture of the gravestone. It was sold at Christie's on 22 September along with the rest of the late Mr Waring's collection.

Title: Friends (1871)

Medium: oil

Exhibited: Royal Academy, 1871

Athenaeum, 29 April 1871:

One of the most enjoyable pictures here, also one of the richest in character, is Mr. E. Crowe's Friends (241).

Athenaeum, 6 May 1871:

Artists will appreciate at a very high rate the remarkable little painting by Mr. Crowe which hangs in Gallery IV, and is styled Friends (241). This is a charming, brilliant, sound, and very delicate picture of the interior of a meeting-house of the Society of Friends - the males on one side, the females on the other, and a few on cross-benches, in rows - all clad soberly in blacks, silver greys, drabs and whites. These dresses are so ably brought together, and even the bald, dull interior itself is so wisely treated, that admirable colour is produced. The painting is eminently solid, and the drawing first-rate; and the design is so rich in subtle manifestations of character, that, although only the backs of the greater number of figures appear, and these are quaintly clothed, the work is full of interest, and, for those who can feel it, rich in humour, without a trace of disrespect or satire.

Illustrated London News, 20 May 1871:

'Friends' (241)... is capital in every way. [It] represents a Quakers' meeting; and although you see only the backs of most of the congregation and the monotonous garbs of the two sexes divided, of course, from each other, yet there is a great deal of subtle discrimination of character, whilst the execution is careful and complete throughout.

Friends was based on a sketch made by Eyre Crowe in Philadelphia in January 1853, when he was acting as William Makepeace Thackeray's secretary in America.

The painting was singled out for praise by Crowe's friend and fellow artist George Dunlop Leslie in his book The Inner Life of the Royal Academy (1914), p.196:

Crowe's works possessed much of the sincerity and honesty that characterised the man himself; many of his earlier works being in this respect quite admirable. Such pictures as those he painted at the Blue Coat School and the Quaker's Meeting, from the simplicity and truth with which the subjects are treated, have a charm about them that, as far as I know, is quite unique in pictures of this sort.

Title: Girl arranging roses (1871); and Lovers (1871)

Copyright certificates for these works, dated 24 October 1871, exist in the archives of the University of Wales, Bangor (Garthewin Additional Collection of manuscripts [1586 (i)]), but nothing more is known about them.

Title: Bob-Cherry (1871)

Medium: oil

Size: 16 x 22 inches

Exhibited: Royal Academy, 1872

Athenaeum, 25 May 1872:

'Bob-Cherry' (214) depicts boys playing at the well-known game; the prizes are slung between a lamp-post and a pillar of the portico opening to their school, the Bluecoat School; the lads follow each other in a line, and take turns to jump and bite, or miss. Of the spectators, one, with all the energy of a boy, clasps the lamp-post and clambers up it; two, of more 'philosophical' minds, lean against the neighbouring iron railings, and speculate on the winner; another, perched on the parapet, also looks on at the game, but with more zest for the sport. All these figures are beautifully drawn, the faces being remarkable in that respect, and the draperies are thoroughly understood, and mastered with most scrupulous care. The actions are rendered with consummate spirit, and are the result of rare powers of observation. The design tells the story in the most enjoyable manner, and with perfect simplicity and vivacity. Although the picture lacks warmth of colour, and is somewhat deficient in depth of tone, it is not difficult to overlook such shortcomings, where there is so much sound, clear, precise, and delicate handling, and where the defects are of a negative rather than of a positive character.

The Times, 5 June 1872:

Painted biography and history are likely to prove less popular, as we have no doubt Mr. E. Crowe can tell us, than these pleasant little pictures of Bluecoat boys at their sports, with their blue skirts tucked up for bob-cherry (214)... it is pleasant to have proof in Mr. Crowe's pictures that the Bluecoat boys can play, for all their cumbersome garb and their city habitat.

The 'Bluecoat School', or Christ's Hospital School, was housed on Newgate Street in the City of London until 1902. Crowe recorded in his diary on 22 September 1902 that this picture was sold at Christie's as part of the collection of the late William Waring of London. It was auctioned again on 26 April 1937 in London, fetching £6 16s 6d.

A copyright certificate for 'Blue Coat Boys dated 24 October 1871, exists in the archives of the University of Wales, Bangor (Garthewin Additional Collection of manuscripts [1586 (i)]), which may refer to this painting. 'Bob-Cherry' was dated 1871 in the auction of 1937.

Title: Out of School (1872)

Medium: oil

Size: 16 x 22 inches

Exhibited: Royal Academy, 1872

Athenaeum, 25 May 1872:

'Out of School' (569) is complementary to 'Bob-Cherry': it shows the quadrangle of the great school, with boys variously engaged, - one, reclining on a bench, reads; another, likewise on the bench, 'ciphers'; a third, in a playful mood, incites them to join him in a game. It has the merits of 'Bob-Cherry', together with warmer colour.

The Times, 5 June 1872:

Painted biography and history are likely to prove less popular, as we have no doubt Mr. E. Crowe can tell us, than these pleasant little pictures of Bluecoat boys at their sports, with their blue skirts tucked up for bob-cherry (214), or those studious Grecians over their books (569), proof against the temptations of singlestick, even in play hours.

Title: Tiff / The Bench by the Sea (1872)

Medium: oil

Size: 18¾ x 12 inches; 24.1 x 31.8 cm

Exhibited: Royal Academy, 1872

Athenaeum, 25 May 1872:

'Tiff' (354) is a capital little picture of a young lady and a gentleman seated on a bench in a public garden, their backs being towards us, and yet almost as expressive of a 'tiff' as their faces could be. The painting is as firm and precise as in No. 214 ['Bob-Cherry'], and the colouring less chilly; the background is needlessly uninteresting, being nothing more than a green hedge. The humour of this picture is complete.

A black-and-white reproduction of a Crowe painting, entitled The Bench by the Sea, appears in Graham Reynolds' Victorian Painting (1966), and was said at the time to be in the collection of Mrs Charlotte Frank. It shows the rear view of a couple sitting on a bench, with the man turned slightly towards the woman, with a rather concerned demeanour. The woman looks down at her lap. The clothes the people are wearing look like contemporary clothes of the late 1860s or early 1870s. It is hard to make out any seascape in the painting, although the monocolour of the reproduction makes it hard to discern details; however, on reading the above description of the painting exhibited as Tiff, a dull-looking hedge would fit what can be seen. It seems clear that the painting was misinterpreted over time, and re-named The Bench by the Sea by one of its owners. The mis-identification was repeated by Christopher Wood in his Dictionary of Victorian Painters (1978), who praised the painting as an example of a simple and successful genre work.

In February 2006, a small pencil sketch marked 'Stone bench intended[?] in Picture The Tiff'', and dated February 1872, was offered for auction on Ebay. It shows a bench virtually identical to the one in the finished painting above.

According to the Bridgeman Art Library, the painting was latterly in the ownership of the Mallett Gallery (antiques and fine art dealers) of 141 New Bond Street, London.

Title: Howard Succouring the Galley Slaves at Venice, A.D. 1778 (1872)

Medium: oil

Exhibited: Royal Academy, 1872

Athenaeum, 25 May 1872:

Mr. Eyre Crowe is rapidly securing for himself a high position ... Howard succouring the Galley-Slaves of Venice, A.D. 1778 (909), his largest picture, will interest the public less than the other and smaller paintings he has contributed. The view gives the side and deck of a large Venetian galley, a boat which has come alongside, the sea, and the distant towers, spires, and other buildings of the city. This picture is very hard, as, indeed, Mr. Crowe's productions usually are, but it is intensely sunny, although not warm. The red-painted deck of the galley and her high poop are shown, her short masts and furled and striped sails. Howard, readily recognisable by his face and costume, stands upon the deck, and distributes among the slaves the great round loaves he has brought; the boat alongside contains blankets and other comforts for the sick captives; the slaves are nearly naked; one of them cuts his loaf eagerly; and others wait their turn for food. The execution is of that thorough and careful kind which rewards the inspection he invites. There are not a few points of fine colour, yet, as a whole, the work lacks colour, and the very solidity of the painting renders it rather opaque. It is pleasant to observe with what skill the little figures in this and the smaller pictures here have been drawn, - how thoroughly their actions have been studied; and we are glad to see workmanship so nearly perfect as the drawing of the galley.

The Times, 5 June 1872:

Mr. E. Crowe's principal picture, 'Howard succouring the Galley-slaves at Venice' (909) is a work of the utmost care and conscientiousness, though it fails of pictorial effect from the uniform hardness of the execution, and the want of real glow in the colour in spite of all the effort to give the effect of diffused Southern daylight. The representation of the details of the galley is most careful, and the wretched slaves, falling eagerly on the brown loaves which the philanthropist is distributing, and their brutal guards, are excellently conceived and thoroughly wrought out.

Art Journal, July 1872:

E. CROWE opens up a train of reflection, bearing rather on Art than on philanthropy, which cannot here be entertained. In any examination of the picture, the galley always comes forward as the subject (rather than the charity of Howard); such however as it is, it is admirably worked out.

This painting was in the collection of the late Mr Charles P. Matthews of Havering-atte-Bowe, Essex, and was offered for auction by Messrs Christie, Manson and Woods at their auction house at King Street, London, on 6 June 1891.

Copyright (c) 2005 Kathryn J. Summerwill. All rights reserved.