Lucy Crane (1842–1882) was an English writer, art critic and translator. She worked on children's stories and

nursery rhymes A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many other countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes. From t ...

and lectured in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

fine art In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwork ...

Life

Crane was born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

in 1842 as the daughter of the portrait and miniature painter

Thomas Crane Thomas Crane (1808–1859) was an English artist and portrait painter. Life Crane was born at Chester in 1808 to Thomas Crane, a bookseller. The young Thomas was in a family of six sisters and three sons. In 1824, having shown early a taste ...

. Her elder brother

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the Ap ...

and younger brother

Walter Walter may refer to: People * Walter (name), both a surname and a given name * Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–1968) * Gunther (wrestler), Austrian professional wrestler and trainer Walter Hahn (born 19 ...

both became noted artists. The Crane family moved from Liverpool to

Torquay Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paignton ...

in 1845. Lucy then went to school in London, and in 1859 the family left Torquay for London. From an early age, Crane showed considerable taste and skill in drawing and coloring. Circumstances, however, turned her attention to general educational work and she found employment as a

governess A governess is a largely obsolete term for a woman employed as a private tutor, who teaches and trains a child or children in their home. A governess often lives in the same residence as the children she is teaching. In contrast to a nanny, th ...

. She became an accomplished musician, and was not only distinguished for her delicacy of touch as an executant, but also for the classical refinement of her taste and her knowledge of the earlier Italian and English.

Work

Crane worked on children's nursery rhymes and stories, and she translated the

Brothers Grimm The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were a brother duo of German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers, and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among the ...

's ''Household Stories'' collection from German to English in 1882. She also worked with her father, the senior Thomas, and with her brother

Walter Crane Walter Crane (15 August 184514 March 1915) was an English artist and book illustrator. He is considered to be the most influential, and among the most prolific, children's book creators of his generation and, along with Randolph Caldecott and K ...

on a number of projects. She wrote original verses for rhymes such as ''How Jessie was Lost,'' ''The Adventures of Puffy,'' ''Annie and Jack in London'' for Walter's coloured toy-books, some of which were published in

Argosy Magazine ''Argosy'', later titled ''The Argosy'', ''Argosy All-Story Weekly'' and ''The New Golden Argosy'', was an American pulp magazine from 1882 through 1978, published by Frank Munsey until its sale to Popular Publications in 1942. It is the first ...

. The selection and arrangement of the accompaniments to the nursery songs in the ''Baby's Opera'' and ''Baby's Bouquet'' were also by her. In the last few years of her life, Crane delivered lectures in London on

. Some of her views of art were

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

, and influenced by

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and politi ...

and

Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. A leading writer of the Victorian era, he exerted a profound influence on 19th-century art, literature and philosophy. Born in Ecclefechan, Dum ...

. Six of her lectures were published as ''Art and the Formation of Taste'' posthumously in 1888 by

Macmillan Publishers Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be one of the 'Big Five' English language publi ...

. She died on 31 March 1882, at the house of a friend at

Bolton le Moors Bolton le Moors (also known as Bolton le Moors St Peter) was a large civil parish and ecclesiastical parish in Salford (hundred), hundred of Salford in the Historic counties of England, historic county of Lancashire, England. It was administered f ...

Bibliography

* ''

Rumpelstiltskin "Rumpelstiltskin" ( ; german: Rumpelstilzchen) is a German fairy tale. It was collected by the Brothers Grimm in the 1812 edition of ''Children's and Household Tales''. The story is about a little imp who spins straw into gold in exchange for a g ...

: A German Folk Tale from the Brothers Grimm'' (1971), translated by Lucy Crane (Scott, Foresman, 1970) (Illustrated by Kinuko Y. Craft)

References

External links

*
The Project Gutenberg EBook of Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm, by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm; translated by Lucy Crane.
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Crane, Lucy 1842 births 1882 deaths English art critics 19th-century English non-fiction writers English women non-fiction writers British women art critics 19th-century English women writers 19th-century British journalists British women journalists Artists from Liverpool