Eyre Crowe (1824-1910)

Medium: oil

Exhibited: Dudley Gallery, 1869; Gallery of the New British Institution, Bond Street, London, 1870 (charity exhibition in aid of widows and orphans of Germans killed in the war)

According to his diary entries, Crowe based this painting on a sketch made while on holiday in Germany in June 1843, although in one of the reviews it is described as showing Breton peasants. He refers to it variously as ‘Going to Church’ and ‘Returning from Church’, not settling on the final title until it was submitted for exhibition at the Dudley Gallery at the beginning of October 1869.

Daily News, 26 October 1869:

Mr. Eyre Crowe’s little picture of “Breton peasants returning from church” is a very neatly touched and characteristic one.

Athenaeum, 30 October 1869:

… a farmer and his ‘womenkind’ going home – the former is in a meditatative mood, smoking, and moved by the sermon of the day. The flimsy background here – a landscape in crude tints – is evidently but temporary. The figures are striking in their completeness; the sound fruit of sound studies, – solid, and not easily exhausted of its interest.

Art Journal, December 1869:

Mr. Crowe’s small picture, ‘Returning from Church’, is one of his very best products: the artist – while here, as ever, clever – does not overstep the simplicity of nature.

Daily Telegraph, 27 September 1870:

Relief of Widows and Orphans of Germans Killed in the War

Noticeable is the “Return from Church,” by Eyre Crowe, inasmuch as it represents the costume of the peasants about Forbach.

The Graphic, 1 October 1870

Under the patronage of the Crown Princess of Prussia and the Ambassadors of the North German Confederation and Bavaria, the “German Academic Society” of London have organised an exhibition of works of art at the Gallery of the New British Institution in Bond Street, for the benefit of the destitute Widows and Orphans of Germans killed in the war. The benevolent object of the Society has been much aided by the gift of paintings and sculpture, the work of German artists resident in this country, and of a numerous body of English artists and amateurs. An exhibition has resulted worthy in every way of public support and favour. The artists have given generously; many of the works in the collection are really choice specimens of art, while the charitable design of the enterprise assuredly needs not a word to be said in its commendation… Mr. Eyre Crowe has presented an admirable cabinet painting in oils, called Returning from Church.