Eyre Crowe (1824-1910)

Most of Crowe’s undated works were sold at auction by Messrs Furber at 77 Chancery Lane, London, on 22 February 1911, and, from the prices fetched, may have been sketches in pen or oil rather than finished works. This group of works are described in the sale catalogue (Garthewin Additional Collection 1589, held at the Archives at Bangor University) as ‘Oil Paintings and Sketches’.

The remainder of the works cited here have come up for auction in recent years (see Art Price, the database of auction information, for details), or were mentioned by Crowe in his diaries (Bangor University, Garthewin Additional Collection 1554-1570).

Artworks offered on Ebay in the last couple of years tend to be very rough pencil or ink sketches. They were either drawn onto single pieces of scrap paper, or into sketch books which have subsequently been torn up by dealers and the contents sold individually. There is no further information available apart from what is given here. However, many of the Ebay adverts were accompanied by low-resolution images. Please contact me if you are interested in seeing an image of any particular sketch.

Browse the hyperlinked titles below to see more information about Eyre Crowe’s undated pictures, and images and published reviews where these are available. Where there is no hyperlink, no more details are known.

• A Good Whiff. Medium: oil on panel. Size: 32 x 24 cm (12 5/8 x 9 7/16 in). Auctioned by Bonham’s, Bath, 16 July 2007 (£320). A painting of a workman smoking and drinking in a public house. Possibly the same painting as Hodge (c.1877).
• Armour. Medium: sketch on panel. Size: 6 x 8 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (1s)
• Art School, Salisbury. Unknown but for its inclusion in a list of paintings exhibited at a retrospective of Crowe’s work at the Doré Galleries in 1914
• À Trouville (n.d.). Medium: watercolour.
• Back part of a Boat. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 24 x 20 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (1s 6d)
• Back view of the Sculpture Gallery doorway, Louvre. Medium: pencil drawing. Size: 14 x 22 cm. Auctioned by Bellmans Auctioneers and Valuers, West Sussex, May 2011 (£65)
• Ballot for new members of the Reform Club. Medium: drawing
• Benjamin Disraeli, Lord Beaconsfield. Medium: pencil drawing. Size: 26 x 18½ cm. Offered for auction, 1995
• Boat and Figures – The Launch. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 50 x 30 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (3s)
• Boulogne Fisherwoman. Medium: watercolour. Offered for auction, 1998
• Boys’ Class at College. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 21 x 30 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (4s). Perhaps a sketch for one of Crowe’s series of Bluecoat Boys paintings
• Carlisle Bay, Barbados. Medium: pencil drawing
• Cherubs [not definitely identified as by Eyre Crowe]. Medium: oil painting. Size 46 x 36 inches.
• “Chicago” Smith. Medium: drawing. A sketch portrait of a member of the Reform Club
• Coast Scene. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 24 x 36 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (7s)
• Coast Scene with Shooting Party. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 12 x 18 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (share of 5s). Perhaps a sketch for A Rifle Match – at Dunnottar, N.B. (1890)
• Copies after Murillo and Velasquez. Medium: red chalk drawing
• Cornfield with Scarecrow. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 10 x 14 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (share of 5s)
• Country Lane with Cottage (n.d.). Medium: oil. Size: 10 x 12 inches. Owner: private individual.
• Country Lane with Stream, Cottage and Figures sketching. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Sketch: 40 x 66½ inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (5s)
• Country Road with Farmyard and Cattle. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 14 x 18 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (5s)
• Cows. Medium: ink drawing. Size: 4 x 3.5 inches. Offered on Ebay, Nov 2005, by Raye Dean Gilbert, Fine Art Dealers, under the title ‘Bovine’, with no evidence of this being the original title. ‘Cows’ is a descriptive title assigned by me
• Dr Byron at a Coffee House. Medium: pencil drawing
• Duc de Guise and others. Medium: ink drawing. Size: 5½ x 8½ inches. Offered on Ebay, Mar 2006, by Raye Dean Gilbert, Fine Art Dealers. Offered again in Mar 2007 by a dealer from Houston, Texas
• Ducks. Medium: ink drawing. Size: 4 x 5 inches. Offered on Ebay, Mar 2006, by Raye Dean Gilbert, Fine Art Dealers
• Eight sketches by Eyre Crowe, from the collection of Judith Adelman. Medium: pen and ink, pencil and wash. Size: various, largest 17 x 13 inches. Advertised in Weekly Internet Rare Books and Autographs Auctions #201537 by Heritage Auctions, 3-10 Sep 2015 (lot 92359)
• Elizabethan Woman. Medium: ink drawing. Size: 6 x 7 inches. Offered on Ebay, Nov 2005, by Raye Dean Gilbert, Fine Art Dealers, under the title ‘Her Ladyship’, with no evidence of this being the original title. ‘Elizabethan Woman’ is a descriptive title assigned by me
• Ewer and Fruit. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 18 x 24 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (1s 6d)
• Exterior of Country House with Figures. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 40 x 66½ inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (6s). Unfinished
• Exterior with Convicts at Work. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 16 x 22 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (2s). Perhaps a sketch for Convicts at Work, Portsmouth (1887)
• Farmyard Scene with Cattle and Figures – Thrashing (first version). Medium: oil painting or sketch on panel. Size: 14 x 10 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (share of 5s)
• Farmyard Scene with Cattle and Figures – Thrashing (second version). Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 10½ x 8½ inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (share of 5s)
• Feeding Poultry. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 14 x 21 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (3s 6d). Unfinished
• Fifteen Figure Studies in Two Frames (various dates). Medium: pen, ink and washes. Size: smallest 10 x 3 cm, largest 17 x 27 cm. Attributed to Eyre Crowe and offered for sale by Cuttlestone’s auctioneers, Penkridge, Fine Art and Antiques Sale, 23-24 Nov 2017 (Lot 61). However, the style of the sketches is not exactly reminiscent of Eyre Crowe’s work, and none are signed by him (as was his usual practise), so I doubt the attribution.
• Figures from Clarendon’s Rebellion. Medium: ink drawing. Size: 7 x 10 inches. Offered on Ebay, Nov 2005, by Raye Dean Gilbert, Fine Art Dealers
• Figures Merrymaking in a Cornfield. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 12½ x 16 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (share of 19s)
• Figures up a Rigging. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 18 x 10 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (3s)
• Fishermen beside a house by a bridge near a river. Medium: brown ink and wash drawing
• Flower Pieces. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (1s)
• Furniture. Medium: ink drawing. Size: 7½ x 3½ inches. Offered on Ebay, Mar 2006, by Raye Dean Gilbert, Fine Art Dealers. Offered again, June 2007, by a dealer from Houston, Texas
• George John Pinwell. Medium: pencil and crayon drawing. Size: 4 3/8 x 3¼ inches (111 x 83 mm)
• Half-length Portrait of a Gentleman. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (share of 3s). Unfinished
• Half-length portrait of a Lady. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 30 x 25 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (1s 6d)
• Half-length portrait of Gentleman seated with Book in his hand. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 46 x 35 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (5s)
• Half-length portrait of Gentleman with Smoking Cap, seated (first version). Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 38 x 30 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (5s)
• Half-length portrait of Gentleman with Smoking Cap, seated (second version). Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 36 x 28 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (5s)
• Half-length portrait of Lady in black dress. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 36 x 28 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (16s)
• Harlequin and Columbine. Medium: pencil drawing. Size: 8 x 4 inches. Offered on Ebay, Jun 2007, by a dealer from Houston, Texas
• Head of a girl with four studies of a hand holding a stick. Medium: black ink and grey wash drawing
• Interior of a Chapel. Medium: oil painting or sketch on panel. Size:  8 x 12 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (share of 5s)
• Interior of a Monastery. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 24 x 36 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (3s)
• Interior of an Artist’s Studio with Sculpture and Trophies. Medium: Pencil and watercolour
• Interior of the Court. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 10 x 14 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (share of 9s)
• Interior with Figure. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 9½ x 12½ inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (2s)
• Interior with Figure looking at a Portrait. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 25½ x 18 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (9s)
• Interior with Figure of Artist’s Model. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 36 x 28 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (£1 1s)
• Interior with Figures. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 10 x 14 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (3s 6d). Unfinished
• Interior with Figures on a Staircase. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 45 x 31 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (5s)
• Interior with Lady and Two Children saying Grace. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 19½ x 16 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (£1 10s)
• Interior with Lady Seated (first version). Medium: oil painting or sketch on panel. Size: 16 x 12 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (share of 2s)
• Interior with Lady Seated (second version). Medium: oil painting or sketch on panel. Size: 14 x 10 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (share of 2s)
• Interior with Lady Working a Sampler. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 30 x 21 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (9s). Perhaps a sketch for The Embroidress (1903)
• John Bright in his Study. Medium: oil painting or sketch on panel. Size: 9 x 10½ inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (2s). Probably a sketch for The Rt Hon. John Bright, M.P., at the Reform Club, 1883 (1904)
• Johnsonian Club. Medium: pencil drawing. Size: 4.5 x 6.75 inches. Offered on Ebay, Mar 2006, by Raye Dean Gilbert, Fine Art Dealers. Captioned ‘The room in wh the Johnsonian Club met now a Dispensary. Sketched by E.C. on the spot. Turks Head, Gossard Street’
• King Charles I. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 14 x 10½ inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (share of 19s). Perhaps this actually refers to Charles IX (1896), which appears in the inventory of Crowe’s possessions at his death
• Ladies in border of Flowers and Cherub Heads. Medium: oil painting on panel. Size: 30 x 38 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (£9 19s 6d)
• Landscape with Bridge and Soldiers. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 12 x 16 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (share of 5s)
• Landscape with Buildings. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 12 x 19 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (3s 6d). Unfinished
• Landscape with Outbuildings and Cattle – Milking Time. Medium: oil painting. Size: 16 x 22 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (12s). Perhaps a sketch for Milking Time (1903)
• Landscape with Pool and Trees. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 17 x 21 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (5s)
• Landscape with Stacks, Buildings and Trees. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 16 x 25½ inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (1s 6d). Unfinished
• Landscape with Trees and Old Buildings. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 23 x 30 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (12s)
• Man in a smock, seated with basket, bread and ale. Medium: watercolour drawing
• Man Working. Medium: ink drawing. Size: 6 x 4 inches. Offered on Ebay, Oct 2005, by Raye Dean Gilbert, Fine Art Dealers
• May Day Mummers. Medium: ink drawing. Size: 7.25 x 2.25 inches. Offered on Ebay, Jan 2006, by Raye Dean Gilbert, Fine Art Dealers. Offered again, Mar 2007, by a dealer from Houston, Texas. A sketch from a printed or painted source dated 1708
• Mrs Piozzi. Medium: drawing. Size: 7 x 4.5 inches. Offered on Ebay, Jan 2006, by Raye Dean Gilbert, Fine Art Dealers. Caption ‘Dyce Coll Richard Bentley D.D. By W.R. Buss after Thornhill Mrs Piozzi’
• Musicians at Rehearsal. Medium: pen and watercolour sketch. Size: 6 x 7 inches. Offered on Ebay, May 2012, by a dealer in Stafford
• Nelson’s Farewell. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 14 x 21 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (5s). Perhaps a sketch for Nelson Leaving England for the Last Time (1888)
• Paint and Potteries. Medium: pencil drawing. Size: 7 x 4.5 inches. Offered on Ebay, Jan 2006, by Raye Dean Gilbert, Fine Art Dealers. Caption, ‘Painting Stand used by girls who paint platter wares in the Potteries, Stoke-on-Trent’.
• Plas Madoc. Medium: pencil drawing. Size: 6.75 x 9.75 inches. Offered on Ebay, Jan 2006, by Raye Dean Gilbert, Fine Art Dealers
• Plumed Bird. Medium: ink drawing. Size: 8 x 6.25 inches. Offered on Ebay, Nov 2005, by Raye Dean Gilbert, Fine Art Dealers
• Portrait of Captain Crowe. Medium: oil painting (oval). Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (£1 11s). Crowe’s grandfather was Captain David Crowe, but died before he was born. This picture may not therefore be by Crowe, but was nevertheless found in his possessions
• Portrait of George Crowe. Medium: oil painting. Size: 8 x 7½ inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (5s). Probably a portrait of Crowe’s brother George as a toddler, painted in Rome, which hung in Crowe’s room in the 1890s
• Portrait of George Crowe. Medium: watercolour. Offered for auction, 1998
• Portrait of Jean-Léon Gérôme. Medium: oil painting. Size: 12 x 10 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (6s)
• Portrait of Sir Nathaniel Fiennes (copy). Medium: pencil drawing
• Portrait study of a girl wearing a hat. Medium: pastel drawing. Size: 12 x 7 cm (4.75 x 2.75 inches). Auctioned by George Kidner Auctioneers and Valuers, Lymington, Hampshire, 2008 (£28). The picture had been exhibited by J.S. Maas and Co. Ltd in 1974
• Queen Mary of Scotland’s room at Hardwicke Hall. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 14 x 20 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (1s)
• Reform Club member balancing on the two back legs of a chair. Medium: drawing. Whereabouts unknown – stolen from its previous owner
• River Scene with Mendelssohn in a Boat. Medium: oil painting 31½ x 39 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (5s). Probably a sketch for ‘Mendelssohn‘ (1908)
• River Scene with Mountainous Background. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 20 x 30 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (4s)
• River Scene with Pictures and Mountainous background. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 40 x 65 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (10s)
• River Scene with Trees. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 20 x 30 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (3s 6d). Unfinished
• Robin. Medium: blue crayon and watercolour drawing
• Scotch Herring Girls. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 30 x 40 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (£6)
• Seapiece with Boat. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 28 x 21½ inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (3s)
• Seapiece with Sailing Boat. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 14 x 10 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (share of 5s)
• Sir Robert [-], knight of the House of Minto. Medium: ink drawing. Size: 7 x 4 inches. Offered on Ebay, Oct 2005, by Raye Dean Gilbert, Fine Art Dealers. A memorial brass to Sir Robert, a knight of the House of Minto, in Glasgow Cathedral, died 1605
• Sketch. Medium:  pencil drawing. Size: 10.7 x 16 cm. Offered for auction, 2000
• Sketch of Two Women and a Third Figure. Medium: pencil drawing. Size: 5.25 x 4.25 inches. Offered on Ebay, Dec 2005, by Raye Dean Gilbert, Fine Art Dealers
• Study Interior with Artist Painting. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 10 x 14 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (12s)
• Study of a Cavalier. Medium: watercolour. Size: 21.5 x 14 cm (8 7/16 x 5 1/2 inches). Auctioned by Bonham’s, Oxford, 20 Jan 2010, sold for £144
• Study of a Woman with a Jug. Medium: pencil and red and brown wash drawing
• The Artist. Medium: ink drawing. Size: 7 x 4.25 inches. Offered on Ebay, Nov 2005, by Raye Dean Gilbert, Fine Art Dealers
• The Coalfields, with Figures. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 30 x 44 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (13s). Possibly a sketch for ‘A Spoil Bank‘ (1874)
• The Cornfield. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 16 x 20 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (3s)
• The Cripple Beggar of Charing Cross (first version). Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 14 x 10 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (2s). Probably a sketch for ‘The Concertina Player of Trafalgar Square’ (1902)
• The Cripple Beggar of Charing Cross (second version). Medium: oil on panel. Size: 14 x 10 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (3s)
• The interior of Ambrose Jerome’s studio with armours. Medium: watercolour over pencil with gum arabic. Size: 9 ¼ x 11 ¾ inches. Auctioned by Sotheby’s, 27 Apr 1988 (estimate £300-500); offered for auction again, 1989
• The Latest News. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 40 x 60 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (10s 6d)
• The New Recruit (n.d.). Medium: oil
• The Queen at Work. Medium: ink drawing. Size: 5 x 8.25 inches. Offered on Ebay, Dec 2005, by Raye Dean Gilbert, Fine Art Dealers
• The Sun Bonnet. Medium: oil on canvas
• The Witches’ Trial (attributed to ‘the circle of Eyre Crowe’). Medium: oil on panel, arched top. Size: 27 x 35in (68.7 x 88.8cm). Auctioned by Christies, London, 25 Aug 1994 (£462)
• Three Figure Studies (19 April 1901 and n.d.). Medium: charcoal and pencil heightened with white. Size: largest 47 x 22 cm. Offered by Bellmans Auctioneers and Valuers, Billingshurst, West Sussex, 5 March 2018 (Lot 1071)
• View from Vasserol. Medium: watercolour drawing
• View near Montreal [Montreuil] – Farmhouse scene with figure feeding poultry. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 40 x 60 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (13s). Possibly a sketch for The Poultry Yard (1900)
• View of Fireplace. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (share of 3s). Unfinished
• Village on a river with boats. Medium: watercolour drawing
• Window. Medium: chalk drawing. Size: 7 x 4½ inches. Offered on Ebay, Mar 2006, by Raye Dean Gilbert, Fine Art Dealers
• Woman Working. Medium: ink drawing. Size: 6 x 4 inches. Offered on Ebay, Oct 2005, by Raye Dean Gilbert, Fine Art Dealers
• Yardley. Medium: drawing. Sketch portrait of a member of the Reform Club
• Young Lady in White Dress. Medium: oil painting. Size: 56 x 40 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (5s)
• Young Woman in Profile (n.d.). Medium: coloured pencil sketch. Size: 7 x 12 cm. Auctioned by Franklin Browns, Edinburgh, 20 May 2017

Groups of sketches, not individually described:

• Sketches (various) in Garthewin Additional Collection, University of Wales, Bangor. Medium: pencil drawings (Garthewin Additional 1571-1573 and 1582)
• Sketches (various) in Crowe family papers, National Art Library, 1867-1902. Medium: pencil and ink drawings (MSL/2001/4/1/24)
• Sketches (various) in the Reform Club collection. Medium: pencil and ink drawings. Occasionally featured on the Reform Club’s Instagram account