This unusual Eyre Crowe painting is for sale at auction by Bonham’s Skinner, Massachussetts, USA, on 17 July this year with a starting bid of $6,000. It was last sold in 2019 for $10,000.
Contemporary drawing room scenes showing wealthy people at play were not part of Crowe’s normal repertoire, but have an interest today through the vibrant colours and fashionable clothes displayed. The painting is also an attempt at a ‘problem’ or ‘puzzle’ picture where the viewer is invited to speculate at the relationships between the people in the room. Reactions from the critics at the time feature in my page about Forfeits (1880).
Eyre Crowe (1824-1910) 