The Forge

Eyre Crowe illustrates a forge shop featuring a drop forge hammer driven by a water wheel. A pair of workers position a hot workpiece under the forge hammer; their faces shielded from sparks and heat. They are wearing aprons and shin guards that also cover their feet. The workpiece lies on an iron base serving as an anvil. A cam wheel to the right lifts the hammer. As the cam turns farther the hammer will fall onto the glowing hot workpiece. On the right a boy is holding a cart, ready to move the workpiece. On the left a young woman delivers food and something to drink.

Eyre Crowe spent his childhood in Paris, where his father, the historian Eyre Evans Crowe, was foreign correspondent for the Morning Chronicle. In 1839, he began his study of painting with Paul Delaroche, with whom he visited Rome in 1843. On his return to London in 1845 Crowe entered the Royal Academy Schools, exhibiting his first picture at the Royal Academy the following year. In visits to the United States, Crowe had looked sympathetically at the plight of black slaves and in 1861 exhibited The Sale of Slaves at the Royal Academy. This picture was based on sketches he had made in 1853 when visiting Virginia. He pursued this social commentary with such works as the Dinner Hour, Wigan which presents another view of factory workers. Later in life Crowe worked as an inspector and examiner at the South Kensington schools and was elected Artist of the Royal Academy in 1876.

The Forge was previously in the Forbes Collection, purchased by the Forbes family as Christopher “Kip” Forbes pursued his degree in Art History from Princeton University in the early 1970s. Then labelled The Foundry—a tag that remains on the frame—it serves as a reminder that we must look at the art of industry through a variety of lenses. Not only do we examine them art historically, we must also understand the processes captured in the compositions.