‘Mendelssohn’ by Eyre Crowe A.R.A. (1908). Reproduction from Royal Academy Pictures and Sculpture, 1908, p. 129
Medium: oil
Size: 41 x 66½ inches
Exhibited: Royal Academy, 1908
The subject of this picture is Mendelssohn composing his ‘Rivulet’ on the banks of the River Alyn at Rhydymwyn near Mold, North Wales. Crowe’s diary mentions abandoning a picture called ‘Rivulet’ as unfinished in February 1906. He returned to the area in August and September 1907.
The size of the painting matches with an unframed oil painting left in Eyre Crowe’s possession at his death, and auctioned by Messrs Furber in 1911 under the title ‘Country Lane with Stream, Cottage and figures sketching’. The painting was sold for just 5 shillings. It may be the same painting, or a sketch for the final work.
The picture has been referenced in a recently published Mendelssohn iconography: Janet I. Wasserman, “Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy & Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel: Portrait Iconographies,” Music in Art [City University of New York, Research Center for Music Iconography], XXXIII/1-2 (2008), 317-371
Eyre Crowe (1824-1910) 