Born in Kingston upon Thames, Crowe was educated at Kingston School of Art and the Royal College of Art, and at age 23 began teaching at Edinburgh College of Art, where she remained for 30 years while developing her own practice. Awarded an OBE in 2004 for services to Art, alongside extensive exhibitions and fellowships, Crowe has taken on notable public portrait commissions including Nobel physicist Peter Higgs, composer Thea Musgrave and astrophysicist Dame Jocelyn Bell. In 2018 the Scottish National Portrait Gallery held Beyond Likeness, a retrospective exhibition of Crowe's portraits, and in 2019, the City Art Centre in Edinburgh hosted a lifetime retrospective, Fifty Years of Painting.
Victoria Crowe's work is held in collections including the National Portrait Gallery, London, National Museums of Scotland, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Danish National Portrait Gallery, Chatsworth House and the Royal Academy.