Sir Joseph Archer Crowe (25 October 1825, London – 6 September 1896, Gamburg an der Tauber, today Werbach, Germany) was an English journalist, consular official and art historian, whose volumes of the History of Painting in Italy, co-written with the Italian critic Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle (1819–1897), stand at the beginning of disciplined modern art history writing in English, being based on chronologies of individual artists' development and the connoisseurship of identifying artist's individual manners or "hands". Their multi-volume A New History of Painting in Italy continued to be revised and republished until 1909, after both were dead. Though now outdated, these are still often cited by modern art historians. Life Early life Crowe was born at 141 Sloane Street, London, the son of the journalist Eyre Evans Crowe and his wife Margaret Hunter. Shortly after his birth the family moved to France, where Crowe's childhood was spent, mostly in Paris, where his father was based as the correspondent of the London Morning Chronicle; his home was the centre of a liberal and artistic circle that mixed French and expatriates. At an early age Crowe showed considerable aptitude for painting and entered the studio of Paul Delaroche in Paris, with his brother Eyre Crowe, who was to become a painter of historical genre subjects, and the friend and amanuensis of William Makepeace Thackeray. Journalism He returned to England with his father in 1843, following him into journalism as a correspondent for the Morning Chronicle and the Daily News. During the Crimean War he worked as a correspondent for the Illustrated London News. On his return from the Crimea he received an offer to direct an art school in India. He went there, but when the post did not materialise he turned to journalism again, acting as a correspondent for the Times during the Indian Mutiny. Illness cut his time in India short, and he returned to England. He was a correspondent for the Times during the Austro-Italian War in 1858, and was present at the battle of Solferino. Diplomatic career Through the influence of Lord John Russell, Crowe was appointed consul-general for Saxony in 1860, and in this capacity he represented French interests at Leipzig during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. In 1872 he was appointed consul-general for Westphalia and the Rhenish Provinces in Düsseldorf and in 1880 commercial attaché to the embassies at Berlin and Vienna. In 1882 he was