Eyre Crowe (1824-1910)

Medium: oil

Size: 33.5 x 51 inches

Exhibited: Royal Academy, 1872

This painting was in the collection of the late Mr Charles P. Matthews of Havering-atte-Bowe, Essex, and was offered for auction by Messrs Christie, Manson and Woods at their auction house at King Street, London, on 6 June 1891.

It was auctioned again by Sotheby’s on 2 May 1979 and 7 October 1980 under the title ‘Earl Howard giving bread to the chained galley slaves while visiting Venice in 1778’. The 1980 sale was anonymous but the provenance was given as the Earl of Carlisle, Castle Howard. An image and details are given on the Paul Mellon Centre Photographic Archive catalogue.

The Graphic, 18 May 1872

Mr. Eyre Crowe – always a conscientious and well-prepared artist – has achieved marked success by his “Howard succouring the Galley Slaves at Venice.” As a draughtsman Mr. Crowe has few equals among Englishmen; he is eminently original without any false straining after mere novelty, and submits no work to public examination that is not complete and thoughtful in every respect. He is seen to particular advantage this year, and the example under mention cannot fail to benefit his well-earned reputation.

Athenaeum, 25 May 1872:

Mr. Eyre Crowe is rapidly securing for himself a high position … Howard succouring the Galley-Slaves of Venice, A.D. 1778 (909), his largest picture, will interest the public less than the other and smaller paintings he has contributed. The view gives the side and deck of a large Venetian galley, a boat which has come alongside, the sea, and the distant towers, spires, and other buildings of the city. This picture is very hard, as, indeed, Mr. Crowe’s productions usually are, but it is intensely sunny, although not warm. The red-painted deck of the galley and her high poop are shown, her short masts and furled and striped sails. Howard, readily recognisable by his face and costume, stands upon the deck, and distributes among the slaves the great round loaves he has brought; the boat alongside contains blankets and other comforts for the sick captives; the slaves are nearly naked; one of them cuts his loaf eagerly; and others wait their turn for food. The execution is of that thorough and careful kind which rewards the inspection he invites. There are not a few points of fine colour, yet, as a whole, the work lacks colour, and the very solidity of the painting renders it rather opaque. It is pleasant to observe with what skill the little figures in this and the smaller pictures here have been drawn, – how thoroughly their actions have been studied; and we are glad to see workmanship so nearly perfect as the drawing of the galley.

Daily Telegraph, 25 May 1872:

That which is given us is capital; but we want more; and the feeling of dissatisfaction is heightened by the conviction that Mr. Eyre Crowe could give us a great deal more if he chose. This feeling is aggravated when we come to examine the “John Howard” picture. With infinite research, with rare patience and care, Mr. Crowe has painted one of those Venetian galleys of the last century, of which it may in truth be said that the present generation know, as a rule, far less than they do of the biremes and quinquiremes of the ancients. The elaborate construction of the galley, her high poop, intricate forecastle, and bulwarks, are depicted with Chinese minuteness; the red-shirted convicts swarming over the deck and up the sides; their bedding and cooking utensils; the brutal argousins who are brandishing the rattans over their backs; the Moors and negroes who own a companionship of wretchedness with these hapless Christians; and the good Philanthropist who is distributing abundant loaves of bread among them – all these, with the distant view of Venice, are given with the minute exactitude of a photograph. But everything is too dry, methodical, and saccade. One feels inclined to imagine that Mr. Crowe had engraved his picture before painting it, and to look for the incisive marks of the burin beneath the touch of the pencil. So careful, exact, methodical is the work – without extenuation, without malice, and without hardihood – that we are reminded, looking at this carefully lined and ruled prow, on these well-seamed planks, of some minute marvel of architectural painting by Steinwyck; some painstaking scene from a ballet at Trianon painted on a chicken-skin fan-mount by a Lancret or a Fragonard; some battle-piece conscientiously limned by Vandermeulen on the heels of Louis XIV’s shoes. “Otez moi ces magots là,” was the Great King’s criticism on that style of art. He could have painted a great picture, and he has given us only the lid of a snuff-box. Picturesque breadth and vigour are compressed into his canvas, but they are visible only as through the small end of an opera-glass.

The Times, 5 June 1872:

Mr. E. Crowe’s principal picture, ‘Howard succouring the Galley-slaves at Venice’ (909) is a work of the utmost care and conscientiousness, though it fails of pictorial effect from the uniform hardness of the execution, and the want of real glow in the colour in spite of all the effort to give the effect of diffused Southern daylight. The representation of the details of the galley is most careful, and the wretched slaves, falling eagerly on the brown loaves which the philanthropist is distributing, and their brutal guards, are excellently conceived and thoroughly wrought out.

Art Journal, July 1872:

E. CROWE opens up a train of reflection, bearing rather on Art than on philanthropy, which cannot here be entertained. In any examination of the picture, the galley always comes forward as the subject (rather than the charity of Howard); such however as it is, it is admirably worked out.