Crowe, Sir Joseph Archer I Mr. Joseph Crowe, J. A. Crowe I,1825-1896, journalist, foreign service official, art historian; second son of Eyre Evans Crowe. Born in London, but passed his boyhood mainly in France. Education directed largely by his father. Like his brother Eyre, wished to become artist; studied for a time under Paul Delaroche, whose atelier he described in the H.W. article "Young France at the Easel" [v, 149-52. May 1, 1852]. For some time kept terms at Inner Temple. Reporter for Morning Chronicle; correspondent and reporter, later foreign subeditor, for Daily News; correspondent for Illus. London News during Crimean War; for the Times during Indian Mutiny and Austro-Italian War. Wrote for Examiner, Athenaeum, Westm. Rev., Edin. Rev. From 1860 on, held appointments in diplomatic service, first as consul-general at Leipzig, then at Düsseldorf; thereafter as commercial attaché for Berlin and Vienna, then for whole of Europe. Author of The Early Flemish Painters, 1856; A New History of Painting in Italy, 1864-68; and other histories of art, which held important place in art criticism. As art historian, was aided in his research by G. B. Cavalcaselle. C.B. 1885; K.C.M.G. 1890.
Crowe was a good friend of Wills and his wife. He of course knew Dickens, who had engaged him as assistant Paris correspondent for the Daily News. In the account of one of his early Continental tours, Crowe recorded meeting a German student "who vowed eternal friendship to me after he found out that I was acquainted with Charles Dickens" (Reminiscences, p. 60). In his Reminiscences, Crewe's only reference to his contributing to H.W. is his mention of a "pot-boiler" written for the periodical (p. 101).
"A Paris Newspaper" [I, 164-67. May 11, 1850] was reprinted in Harpers, with acknowledgment to H.W.; it was included in the Putnam volume of selections from H.W.: Home and Social Philosophy, 2nd ser.
D.N.B. suppl. 1901
Author: Anne Lohrli; © University of Toronto Press, 1971.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
