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: Hougoumont, June 1815, the Day after the Battle (1886)
Medium: oil
Exhibited: Royal Academy, 1886; St Jude's, Whitechapel, 1887
'Leaving Hougoumont, my attention was called to a group of wounded Frenchmen by the calm, dignified and soldier-like oration addressed by one of them to the rest. The speaker was sitting on the ground with his lance stuck upright beside him - a veteran lancer of the old guard, who had no doubt fought on many a field'.
Athenaeum, 12 June 1886:
In Gallery X the visitor will find Mr. Eyre Crowe's Hougoumont, June 1815, the day after the Battle (976), wounded French soldiers of various corps cheering a sergeant who addresses them with an earnest air. All the faces are marked by spirit and energy, and full of natural dignity. The figures are ably, but not exhaustively drawn. The colour would bear clearing, and the composition needs a little massing.
Art Journal, August 1886:
... painted with all the accuracy of detail to be expected of a scholar and man of letters, and well composed, but disagreeably crude and heavy in colour.
Title: Arithmetic: Red Maids' School, Bristol (1887)
Medium: oil
Exhibited: Royal Academy, 1887
Athenaeum, 28 May 1887:
... slightly rough and opaque is Arithmetic (800), an illustration of life in the Red Maids' School at Bristol, where Mr. E. Crowe previously found a good subject. The animated and highly expressive faces of the girls in red gowns and white capes are well placed in the warm and well-lit interior of the room.
Illustrated London News, 30 May 1887:
... such pleasant contributions as ... Mr. Eyre Crowe's 'Arithmetic' (800) which, however, recalls somewhat too vividly a previously exhibited reminiscence of the Red Maids' School at Bristol.
Title: Convicts at Work, Portsmouth (1887)
Medium: oil
Size: 40.7 x 53.3 cm
Exhibited: Royal Academy, 1887; International Exhibition, Paris, 1889; Manchester, 1987
Athenaeum, 28 May 1887:
For Mr. Crowe's Convicts at Work, Portsmouth (807), we care less than for the Red Maids' picture.
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The painting formed part of an retrospective of Victorian social realist art at Manchester, one hundred years after it was first exhibited, and was noted by Julian Treuherz in his accompanying catalogue, Hard Times: Social Realism in Victorian Art (Lund Humphries, London/Manchester City Art Galleries, 1987). 'It would count simply as a piece of lively genre were it not for the oddity of the subject ... This unposed picture of convicts, painted with a fresh eye, is very far from the contrived prison scenes of Doré or Holl. In all his social pictures Crowe accepts his subjects as facts rather than vehicles for pathos or moralising'. Convicts at Work had been purchased by Trafalgar Galleries of London at auction at Bonham's in 1969.
Title: Nelson Leaving England for the Last Time (1888)
Medium: oil
Size: 163 x 247½ cm
Exhibited: Royal Academy, 1888; Naval Exhibition, 1891
Current owner: Norwich Castle Museum
'On the 14th September, 1805, Nelson embarked at Portsmouth from the beach, where the bathing machines were placed, instead of the usual landing place, to elude the populace; but a crowd collected in his train, pressing forward to obtain a sight of him. He said, 'I had their huzzas before; I have their hearts now'. The crowd pressed forward to shake hands with him, when he expressed regret that, having one hand only, he could not do so with all, etc.'
Reproduced in the Art Journal, May 1904, p.166
Athenaeum, 5 May 1888:
Mr. Eyre Crowe has sent a picture of unusual importance, which has occupied a considerable time. It represents, on a canvas 8 ft. long, Nelson leaving England for the Last Time (1055). By choosing a secluded part of the beach, Nelson endeavoured to make his departure as private as possible; notwithstanding this a certain number of persons surrounded the barge, and even when it was afloat several persons rushed into the water to shake hands with him, while others cheered him. The boat is nearly parallel to the edge of the sea; her crew, sitting double banked. hold their oars in the air to salute their chief; every face has been carefully studied from nature. The eyes of most of them are fixed on Nelson, standing in the stern and shaking hands with an old man-of-war's man, who, bareheads, has waded into the water to bid the admiral farewell. It is said that Nelson cried out that he wished, instead of one hand, he had twenty hands to shake with his friends. The empty right sleeve of his coat is buttoned to his breast. A chorus of 'old salts' appear, shouting good wishes, at the further gunwale; at the nearer gunwales, close to the stern, an enthusiastic fisher-girl, with a creel at her back, is cheering Nelson. Like her wooden-legged neighbour, she has stepped into the sea. The office in command of the boat stands up near the stern and holds the admiral's cloak, which, when he sits down, will be wrapped about his knees. In the mid-distance other boats are quitting the beach; far off are some big ships, the curving bay, and buildings at the shore.
The Times, 25 May 1888:
The tenth and eleventh rooms contain a curious mixture of successes and failures ... Mr. Crowe, again, has fallen sadly below the standard that is fairly expected of an Associate in his stiff and lifeless performance.
Illustrated London News, 2 June 1888:
Mr. Eyre Crowe's 'Nelson leaving England for the last time' (1055) endeavours to convey the dismal foreboding of the great national hero as strongly as the enthusiasm of his numerous admirers. We are free to confess that Mr. Caton Woodville's work ['Too Late', showing the death of Sir Herbert Stewart] seems to us the more complete and the more dignified work of the two ... the 'glum' face of Lord Nelson ... is repeated with feeble variety in that of all the sailors, who are to row the Admiral's barge. There is, moreover, on this occasion, a heaviness in Mr. Eyre Crowe's touch which is not inherent to his style; and we miss here the dextrous hand which has so often charmed us.
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The painting was shown at an exhibition of British naval painting in 1891, but remained in Eyre Crowe's possession until 1905, when he sold it to Norwich Castle Museum for £150. It is still owned by the Museum, but is not on public display; however, details of the painting, and a colour image, are available on the Museum Service's website.
Title: Military Honours (1889)
Medium: oil
Size: 163 x 247½ cm
Exhibited: Royal Academy, 1889
Reproduced in Art and Literature, 1889
Pall Mall Gazette, 7 June 1889:
Soldiers funeral kilted Regiment. Shocking bad calves the soldiers show - an Insult to Scotland.
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Crowe spent a number of months at the end of 1888 and the beginning of 1889 in Scotland. The figures in 'Military Honours' were drawn from life from a number of soldiers of the Highland Regiment who sat for him in Aberdeen in the first weeks of 1889.
Title: In Search of the Finnan Haddies (1889)
Medium: oil
Exhibited: Royal Academy, 1889
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According to Crowe's diary, this picture showed an old sailor at Stonehaven, Scotland.
Title: The Signal Mortar (1889)
Medium: oil
Exhibited: Royal Academy, 1889
Current owner: Private owner in U.S.A. (interested in selling the painting - please contact me)
Title: Anne Wynne Thackeray (1889)
Medium: oil
According to his diary entries from June 1889, Crowe spent some time painting a portrait of his 23-year old niece Anne Wynne Thackeray, daughter of his late sister Amy and her husband Colonel Edward Thackeray.
Copyright (c) 2005 Kathryn J. Summerwill. All rights reserved.