‘Forfeits’ by Eyre Crowe A.R.A. (1880)
Medium: oil on canvas
Size: 29 x 44 ¼ in. (73.7 x 112.4 cm.)
Exhibited: Royal Academy, 1880
This is probably the painting auctioned, as A Game of Forfeits, by King & Chasemore in Pulborough, England, on 10 October 1978 (lot 107). It was auctioned at Sotheby’s in London in 1983. The picture is reproduced in the exhibition catalogue. The anonymous purchaser in 1983 put it up for sale at Christie’s in New York (Lot 557) on 28 October 2019 with an estimate of $12,000-$18,000. It was described as the property of a ‘Southern seller’. The eventual hammer price reached was $10,000 (£7,776), with the buyer paying a total of $12,500 (£9,720) .
Athenaeum, 1 May 1880:
Mr. Eyre Crowe contributes an animated and solidly painted picture called Forfeits (448), showing ladies and gentlemen amusing each other in a room. A group in front comprises a fair dame in the bloom of life, clad in a striped black-and-white dress; her attitude is very graceful and lifelike; behind her sits a younger damsel, wearing a similar dress. These figures are a little too sharply-defined, their dresses are slightly hard. There is much sound and good painting in the foreground accessories, although equal care has not been bestowed on those of the background and the smaller figures of an extremely happy design.
