Medium: pen and black ink, brush and gray wash over graphite
Size: 8 3/4 x 12 5/8 in. (22.2 x 32 cm)
Current owner: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1967 (67.708.3)
This sketch was made in 1855, during Eyre Crowe’s time in Paris between 1852 and 1856. It shows people and carts arriving bearing paintings, and workmen breaking open packing crates and carrying paintings into the building. It is very similar to Sculpture Gallery door-way at the Exposition Universelle, Paris (1855).
It is inscribed in pen and black ink at upper left of recto: “The Last day!”, and inscribed in graphite at top center of recto: “Paris Exhibition of Paintings 1855”.
An image of the sketch is available on the Museum’s website.
Eyre Crowe (1824-1910) 