
Engraving of 'Sir Richard Steele writing to his wife', by Eyre Crowe (1860). Engraving by J. Cooper, published in the Art Journal, June 1864
Medium: oil
Exhibited: Royal Academy, 1860
This painting was exhibited at the Winter Exhibition at the Society of British Artists’ Suffolk Street Gallery in Pall Mall, and bought by a collector, Mr Plint of Leeds. It was later owned by Mr James Leathart of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a celebrated collector of contemporary art, to whom Crowe had been introduced by William Bell Scott in June 1862. Mr Leathart’s widow was forced to sell the collection after his death in 1895, and the picture was purchased by Mr Ralph Atkinson.