Mrs J.A. Crowe
(1840-1908)
30 March 1863

Volume 10, page 141, sitting number 12,932.

[The sitter is identified as ‘Mrs. J.C. Crowe Esq. R.A.’ in the Silvy daybooks. She is probably the wife of Royal Academician Joseph Archer Crowe.]

Born in or about 1841, Asta Charlotte Caroline von Barby was the eldest daughter of Baron Gustav von Barby and his wife, née Eveline von Ribbentrop.

On 11 April 1861 at Gotha she married the journalist, war correspondent, art historian and consular official Joseph Archer Crowe, son of the journalist Eyre Evans Crowe and his wife Margaret Archer. 

Their marriage produced three sons and four daughters. 

The KCMG [Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George] was conferred on her husband in 1890 and Mrs Crowe became Lady Crowe. 

Sir Joseph Crowe died on 6 September 1896 at Schloss Gamburg in Franconia, leaving an estate valued at £713. 

Lady Crowe died, aged 68, on 22 February 1908 at 16 Carlyle Square, Chelsea. 

 ‘CROWE — On the 22nd inst., at 16, Carlyle-square, Chelsea, Asta, daughter of the late Baron von Barby, widow the late Sir Joseph Crowe, KCMG, CB’ (The Globe, 26 February 1908).

 [For some reason the website of the Royal Academy of Arts and several other sources call her husband ‘Joseph Arthur Crowe’ rather than ‘Joseph Archer Crowe.’]