Eyre Crowe (1824-1910)

Medium: oil

Exhibited: Royal Academy, 1876

Original caption: ‘Euelpides and Pisthetairus have fled from Athens and its vices. In search of a more tranquil region, they are directed by a raven to the community of birds ruled by their king Epops. The scene chosen represents their rebuff, on being at first mistaken for bird-catchers, etc., etc.’ – Aristophanes

Athenaeum, 29 April 1876:

Among the remarkable works of the season are … Mr. Eyre Crowe’s The Rehearsal (10), an extremely humourous and characteristic picture from Aristophanes’ ‘Birds’: Greek players with their masks grouped around the poet, who instructs them in their parts, a most vividly conceived group; in the background is the chorus, with masks of gigantic birds.

Daily Telegraph, 29 April 1876:

As for Mr. Eyre Crowe, who is to be sincerely felicitated on his newly-acquired and richly-deserved elevation to the Associateship of the Academy, he approves himself as painstaking, conscientious and keenly graphic as ever in two pictures scrupulously evolved, delicately soignés, and full of praiseworthy points; but we infinitely prefer his “Darning Day at the Red Maids’ School, Bristol” to his “Rehearsal”, which is a sadly mistaken reminiscence of the matter and manner of Mr. Alma Tadema. Leave Mr. Alma Tadema – or rather Dr. William Smith’s “Dictionary of Antiquities”, Gell and Hamilton’s “Pompeii” and Hope’s “Costume of the Ancients” – alone, Mr. Eyre Crowe, we earnestly entreat you, and adhere to the delineation of those quaint, out-of-the-way scenes of modern realism in which you have not yet found a master. Mr. Crowe has painted a Quakers’ meeting inimitably well; but the world yet expects a Baptist immersion, a Methodist Sunday-school feast, or a Ritualistic Mothers’ Meeting from his pencil; and what a mine of artistic wealth might he not find in the journals of John Wesley, and the memoirs of the Rev. W. Huntingdon – “Sinner Saved”! He is one of the most capable painters of “Non-conformist” subjects that we can boast of; but Mr. Eyre Crowe’s genius is not orthodox – that is to say, classical.

The Times, 29 April 1876:

Always rather odd in his choice of subject, Mr. Crowe has this year painted (10), ‘Aristophanes drilling the personages of his “Birds”‘. The poet is hard at work on his Euelpides and Peisthethaerus, while the chorus in their bird-masks stand a little apart.

The Graphic, 6 May 1876

The first example we come on of another of the last batch of Associates. Hard, cold, and disagreeable in colour, good in character, and uncommon in subject – Aristophanes drilling the actors of his “Birds”. The players of the two male parts in the foreground, with the leader of the chorus and the poet. The chorus in the background, with their bird-masks like the head-pieces in our English pantomime.

Athenaeum, 13 May 1876:

Mr. Eyre Crowe’s pictures justify his election to the A.R.A.-ship, for they are learned and solid, and they show fruits of long and diligent studies in a fine sense of form, much improvement in colour and brilliancy, with no less firmness than before. The Rehearsal (10) exhibits the stateliness and energy which must have characterised the Greek stage. A group, comprising Aristophanes and the actors who are to play in ‘The Birds’, appears in front, and the figures are clad in green, black and yellow robes: the players listen intently, and with vivacity of expressions, to the humorous declamation, and they observe the lively action of the poet, who throws up his arms and speaks aloud: some of these figures wear their appropriate masks; others have pushed them back, so that their handsome and earnest faces are displayed. It is a fine and telling group, and the draperies and flesh are most carefully and solidly drawn and painted. Behind, is a larger group of actors in costume, quaint masks and all, standing near the large curtain, ready to go ‘before the public’.

Henry Blackburn’s Academy Notes, No. 2, May 1876:

Euelpides and Pisthetairus, having fled from Athens and its vices, in search of a more tranquil region, are directed by a raven to the community of birds ruled by their king, Epops. The scene chosen is the moment when Epops, in black robe, throws up is arms, mistaking his visitors for bird-catchers! See Aristophanes, ‘The Birds,’ v. 327-354 (reprinted in the official catalogue). Mr. Crowe’s humour finds vent in depicting the grotesqueness of “the community of birds.” The treatment is forcible, if not too much so; the ability of the new associate unmistakeable.

The Belfast News-Letter, 1 June 1876

10, “The Rehearsal,” by Eyre Crowe, one of the new associates. The treatment is vigorous, and the ability is undeniable. The official catalogue gives the following origin of this picture:- Euelpides and Pisthetaurus, having fled from Athens and its vices in search of more tranquil regions, are directed by a raven to a community of birds ruled by their king, Epops. The scene chosen is the moment when Epops, in black robe, throws up his arms, mistaking his visitors for bird-catchers. (See Aristophanes, “The Birds,” 327-354.)

Art Journal, August 1876:

There is, certainly, humour in the new Associate’s ‘Rehearsal’ (10); but to the general visitor this picture, with its Euelpides, Pisthetairus, and the Chorus of Birds, will prove both literally and metaphorically Greek.

The Era, 18 March 1877

Recollections of Royal Academy Pictures, Produced and Published by Arthur Lucas, 49, Wigmore-Street… Mr Lucas in his latest venture confines himself now to the pictures of last year…in presenting a volume of photographs of the most attractive pictures of the past year, there is novelty as well as merit to commend the publication … the very amusing “Rehearsal,” No. 10, by Eyre Crowe, A.R.A., is another proof of perfect justice done to the work of the artist.