This exquisite painting first came to my attention in 2010 when its owners kindly let me know about it. It was thought to have been dated 1871, and this was the date that Atkins Auctions also gave it when it was put up for sale at their auction house in Devon in 2022.
However, it actually dates from around 15 years earlier. I have just discovered a reference to Eyre Crowe’s Hauling the Boat Ashore – Scene at Portel, Coast of France, dated 1857, in the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Pre-1877 Art Exhibition Catalogue Index. The index entry reveals that the painting travelled to America, and was shown in New York as part of the American exhibition of British Art in the autumn of 1857. There is a very interesting article about the exhibition by Dennis T. Lanigan on the excellent The Victorian Web site.
For the full write-up of this painting, see my page Hauling the Boat Ashore (1857).
Eyre Crowe (1824-1910) 