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
Randolph Caldecott (; 22 March 1846 – 12 February 1886) was a British artist and illustrator, born in Chester. The Caldecott Medal was named in his honour. He exercised his art chiefly in book illustrations. His abilities as an artist were pro ...
and
Kate Greenaway, one of the strongest contributors to the child's nursery
motif that the genre of English children's illustrated literature would exhibit in its developmental stages in the later 19th century.
Crane's work featured some of the more colourful and detailed beginnings of the child-in-the-garden motifs that would characterize many nursery rhymes and children's stories for decades to come. He was part of the
Arts and Crafts movement and produced an array of paintings, illustrations, children's books, ceramic tiles, wallpapers and other decorative arts. Crane is also remembered for his creation of a number of iconic images associated with the
international Socialist movement
The International Socialist Movement was a Trotskyist current inside the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) from 2001 until March 2006. It came into existence as a change of name by Scottish Militant Labour, the since defunct Scottish section of the ...
.
Biography
Early life and influences
![Walter Crane as a Child by Thomas Crane](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Walter_Crane_as_a_Child_by_Thomas_Crane.jpg)
Crane was the second son of
Thomas Crane, a portrait painter and miniaturist, and Marie Crane (''née'' Kearsley), the daughter of a prosperous malt-maker.
His 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 ...
would also go into illustration, and sister
Lucy
Lucy is an English feminine given name derived from the Latin masculine given name Lucius with the meaning ''as of light'' (''born at dawn or daylight'', maybe also ''shiny'', or ''of light complexion''). Alternative spellings are Luci, Luce, Lu ...
was a noted writer. He was a fluent follower of the newer art movements and he came to study and appreciate the detailed senses of the
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...
, and was also a diligent student of the renowned artist and critic
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 ...
. A set of coloured page designs to illustrate
Tennyson's "
Lady of Shalott
"The Lady of Shalott" is a lyrical ballad by the 19th-century English poet Alfred Tennyson and one of his best-known works. Inspired by the 13th-century Italian short prose text '' Donna di Scalotta'', the poem tells the tragic story of Elain ...
" gained the approval of wood-engraver
William James Linton
William James Linton (December 7, 1812December 29, 1897) was an English-born American wood-engraver, landscape painter, political reformer and author of memoirs, novels, poetry and non-fiction.
Birth and early years
Born in Mile End, east Lon ...
to whom Walter Crane was apprenticed for three years in 1859–62. As a wood-engraver he had abundant opportunity for the minute study of the contemporary artists whose work passed through his hands, of Pre-Raphaelites
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti (), was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhoo ...
and
John Everett Millais
Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, ( , ; 8 June 1829 – 13 August 1896) was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was a child prodigy who, aged eleven, became the youngest ...
, as well as Sir
John Tenniel
Sir John Tenniel (; 28 February 182025 February 1914)Johnson, Lewis (2003), "Tenniel, John", ''Grove Art Online, Oxford Art Online'', Oxford University Press. Web. Retrieved 12 December 2016. was an English illustrator, graphic humorist and pol ...
, the illustrator of ''
Alice in Wonderland
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...
'', and
Frederick Sandys
Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys (born Antonio Frederic Augustus Sands; 1 May 1829 – 25 June 1904), usually known as Frederick Sandys, was a British painter, illustrator, and draughtsman, associated with the Pre-Raphaelites. He was also assoc ...
. He was a student who admired the masters of the
Italian Renaissance
The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the trans ...
, however he was more influenced by the
Elgin marbles
The Elgin Marbles (), also known as the Parthenon Marbles ( el, Γλυπτά του Παρθενώνα, lit. "sculptures of the Parthenon"), are a collection of Classical Greek marble sculptures made under the supervision of the architect and s ...
in the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
. A further and important element in the development of his talent was the study of
Japanese colour-prints, the methods of which he imitated in a series of
toy book
Toy books were illustrated children's books that became popular in England's Victorian era. The earliest toy books were typically paperbound, with six illustrated pages and sold for sixpence; larger and more elaborate editions became popular lat ...
s, which started a new fashion.
Political activity
From the early 1880s, initially under
William Morris
William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...
's influence, Crane was closely associated with the
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 ...
movement. He did as much as Morris himself to bring art into the daily life of all classes. With this object in view he devoted much attention to designs for
textile
Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...
s and
wallpaper
Wallpaper is a material used in interior decoration to decorate the interior walls of domestic and public buildings. It is usually sold in rolls and is applied onto a wall using wallpaper paste. Wallpapers can come plain as "lining paper" (so t ...
s, and to house decoration; but he also used his art for the direct advancement of the Socialist cause. For a long time he provided the weekly cartoons for the Socialist organs ''
Justice
Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...
'', ''
Commonweal
Commonweal or common weal may refer to:
* Common good, what is shared and beneficial for members of a given community
* Common Weal, a Scottish think tank and advocacy group
* Commonweal (magazine), ''Commonweal'' (magazine), an American lay-Cath ...
'' and ''
The Clarion''. Many of these were collected as ''Cartoons for the Cause''. He devoted much time and energy to the work of the
Art Workers Guild
The Art Workers' Guild is an organisation established in 1884 by a group of British painters, sculptors, architects, and designers associated with the ideas of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. The guild promoted the 'unity of a ...
, of which he was master in 1888 and 1889 and to the
Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society
The Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society was formed in London in 1887 to promote the exhibition of decorative arts alongside fine arts. The Society's exhibitions were held annually at the New Gallery (London), New Gallery from 1888 to 1890, and roug ...
, which he helped to found in 1888. He was also a Vice President of the
Healthy and Artistic Dress Union, a movement begun in 1890, whose aim was to promote loose-fitting clothing, in opposition to "stiffness, tightness and weight". They produced numerous pamphlets setting out their cause, including one entitled "How to Dress Without a Corset" which Crane illustrated.
Although not himself an
anarchist
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...
, Crane contributed to several libertarian publishers, including Liberty Press and
Freedom Press
Freedom Press is an anarchist publishing house and bookseller in Whitechapel, London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1886, it is the largest anarchist publishing house in the country and the oldest of its kind in the English speaking world. It is bas ...
. He is credited with the design and decoration of the front façade of "The Bomb Shop",
Henderson's
Henderson's, better known as The Bomb Shop, was a bookshop at 66 Charing Cross Road, London known for publishing and selling both radical left and anarchist writing and modernist literature. The shop was founded in 1909, and was a father and s ...
bookshop at 66 Charing Cross Road specialising in left-wing and radical literature.
Crane was controversial in his support of the four Chicago anarchists executed in 1887 in connection with the
Haymarket affair
The Haymarket affair, also known as the Haymarket massacre, the Haymarket riot, the Haymarket Square riot, or the Haymarket Incident, was the aftermath of a bombing that took place at a labor demonstration on May 4, 1886, at Haymarket Square (C ...
. Visiting the United States for the first time in connection with an exhibition of his work in 1891, Crane scandalised polite society by appearing at a Boston anarchist meeting and expressing the opinion that the Haymarket defendants had been put to death wrongfully.
["The Reminiscences of a Socialist Artist," ''Current Literature'', vol. 43, no. 6 (Dec. 1907), pp. 637–641.] Returning to his hotel, Crane found a letter stating that he faced "hopeless ruin" among American patrons of the arts owing to his support of those who were commonly considered to be terrorist conspirators in public opinion of the day.
Financial support was withdrawn and planned dinners in Crane's honour were cancelled.
In response to the controversy, Crane wrote a letter to the press explaining that he had not meant to cause insult and did not himself favour the use of explosives, but had merely been expressing his principled opinion that those convicted were innocent of the crime for which they were charged.
The incident was memorialised in the press as "probably the most dramatic episode" in the artist's career.
Death, and legacy
Walter Crane died on 14 March 1915 in
Horsham
Horsham is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...
Hospital, West Sussex. His body was cremated at the
Golders Green Crematorium
Golders Green Crematorium and Mausoleum was the first crematorium to be opened in London, and one of the oldest crematoria in Britain. The land for the crematorium was purchased in 1900, costing £6,000 (the equivalent of £135,987 in 2021), ...
, where his ashes remain. He was survived by three children, Beatrice, Lionel and Lancelot.
Artistic work
Paintings and illustrations
In 1862 his picture ''The Lady of Shalott'' was exhibited at the
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...
, but the Academy steadily refused his maturer work and after the opening of the
Grosvenor Gallery
The Grosvenor Gallery was an art gallery in London founded in 1877 by Sir Coutts Lindsay and his wife Blanche. Its first directors were J. Comyns Carr and Charles Hallé. The gallery proved crucial to the Aesthetic Movement because it provided ...
in 1877, he ceased to send pictures to
Burlington House
Burlington House is a building on Piccadilly in Mayfair, London. It was originally a private Neo-Palladian mansion owned by the Earls of Burlington and was expanded in the mid-19th century after being purchased by the British government. Toda ...
. In 1863 the printer
Edmund Evans
Edmund Evans (23 February 1826 – 21 August 1905) was an English wood-engraver and colour printer during the Victorian era. He specialized in full-colour printing, a technique which, in part because of his work, became popular in the mid-19th ...
employed Crane to illustrate
yellowbacks
A yellow-back or yellowback is a cheap novel which was published in Britain in the second half of the 19th century. They were occasionally called "mustard-plaster" novels.
Developed in the 1840s to compete with the "penny dreadful", yellow-backs ...
, and in 1865 they began to collaborate on
toy book
Toy books were illustrated children's books that became popular in England's Victorian era. The earliest toy books were typically paperbound, with six illustrated pages and sold for sixpence; larger and more elaborate editions became popular lat ...
s of
nursery rhyme
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 ...
s and
fairy tales
A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful beings. In most cult ...
.
From 1865 to 1876 Crane and Evans produced two to three toy books each year.
![The Baby's Opera A book of old Rhymes and The Music by the Earliest Masters Book Cover 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/The_Baby%27s_Opera_A_book_of_old_Rhymes_and_The_Music_by_the_Earliest_Masters_Book_Cover_1.png)
These are a few of his illustration suites: In 1864 he began to illustrate a series of sixpenny toy books of
nursery rhyme
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 ...
s in three colours for
Edmund Evans
Edmund Evans (23 February 1826 – 21 August 1905) was an English wood-engraver and colour printer during the Victorian era. He specialized in full-colour printing, a technique which, in part because of his work, became popular in the mid-19th ...
. He was allowed more freedom in a series beginning with ''The Frog Prince'' (1874) which showed markedly the influence of
Japanese art
Japanese art covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient pottery, sculpture, ink painting and calligraphy on silk and paper, ''ukiyo-e'' paintings and woodblock prints, ceramics, origami, and more recently manga and anime. It ...
, and of a long visit to Italy following on his marriage in 1871. His work was characterized by sharp outlines and flat tints.
''The Baby's Opera'' was a book of English nursery songs available in 1877 with Evans, and a third series of children's books with the collective title ''Romance of the Three R's'' provided a regular course of instruction in art for the nursery. In his early "Lady of Shalott", the artist had shown his preoccupation with unity of design in book illustration by printing in the words of the poem himself, in the view that this union of the calligrapher's and the decorator's art was one secret of the beauty of the old
illuminated books.
He followed the same course in ''The First of May: A Fairy Masque'' by his friend
John Wise, text and decoration being in this case reproduced by
photogravure
Photogravure (in French ''héliogravure'') is a process for printing photographs, also sometimes used for reproductive intaglio printmaking. It is a photo-mechanical process whereby a copper plate is grained (adding a pattern to the plate) and ...
. ''The Goose Girl'' illustration taken from his beautiful ''Household Stories from Grimm'' (1882) was done again as a big
watercolour
Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...
and then reproduced in
tapestry
Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads may ...
by
William Morris
William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...
. ''Flora's Feast, A Masque of Flowers'' had
lithographic
Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...
reproductions of Crane's line drawings washed in with watercolour; he also decorated in colour ''The Wonder Book'' of
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion.
He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associated with that t ...
, and
Margaret Deland
Margaret Deland (born Margaretta Wade Campbell; February 23, 1857 – January 13, 1945) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet. She also wrote an autobiography in two volumes. She generally is considered part of the literary ...
's ''Old Garden''. During the eighties and nineties he illustrated 16 children's novels by
Mrs. Molesworth in black and white. In 1894 he collaborated with William Morris in the page decoration of ''
The Story of the Glittering Plain'', published at the
Kelmscott Press
The Kelmscott Press, founded by William Morris and Emery Walker, published fifty-three books in sixty-six volumes between 1891 and 1898. Each book was designed and ornamented by Morris and printed by hand in limited editions of around 300. Many ...
, which was executed in the style of 16th-century Italian and German
woodcut
Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...
s. Crane illustrated editions of
Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser (; 1552/1553 – 13 January 1599) was an English poet best known for ''The Faerie Queene'', an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognized as one of the premier craftsmen of ...
's ''
Faerie Queene
''The Faerie Queene'' is an English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. Books IIII were first published in 1590, then republished in 1596 together with books IVVI. ''The Faerie Queene'' is notable for its form: at over 36,000 lines and over 4,000 sta ...
'' (19 pts., 1894–1896) and ''The Shepheard's Calendar'', as well as ''
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
"Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" ( ar, علي بابا والأربعون لصا) is a folk tale from the ''One Thousand and One Nights''. It was added to the collection in the 18th century by its French translator Antoine Galland, who heard ...
'' (1873), ''
The Happy Prince and Other Stories
''The Happy Prince and Other Tales'' (or ''Stories'') is a collection of stories for children by Oscar Wilde first published in May 1888. It contains five stories: "The Happy Prince", "The Nightingale and the Rose", "The Selfish Giant", "The Dev ...
'' by
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...
(1888), an edition of ''Arthurian Legends'', ''A Flower Wedding''.
and in 1900
Judge Perry's re-narration of
Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 Old Style and New Style dates, NS) was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-emin ...
' ''Don Quixote of the Mancha''.
Crane also illustrated
Nellie Dale's books ''On Teaching English Reading'', ''Steps to Reading'', ''First Primer'', ''Second Primer'', ''Infant Reader'', ''Book I'', and ''Book II''. These were most probably completed between 1898 and 1907.
Poetry
Crane wrote and illustrated three books of poetry, ''Queen Summer'' (1891), ''Renascence'' (1891), and ''The Sirens Three'' (1886).
Stained Glass
Crane's earliest stained glass window designs were some US commissions with glass made by
William Morris
William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...
. He then had a UK commission - the windows for the new
Agapemonite church of the
Ark of the Covenant
The Ark of the Covenant,; Ge'ez: also known as the Ark of the Testimony or the Ark of God, is an alleged artifact believed to be the most sacred relic of the Israelites, which is described as a wooden chest, covered in pure gold, with an e ...
in London. These designs are a mixture of
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...
floral works on the side windows and depictions of sin, shame and the translations of Enoch and Elijah. They were completed by
Sylvester Sparrow and have been described by
English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses.
The charity states that i ...
as Crane's "most significant work in this medium", and in the justification for listing the church as Grade II* "the stained glass is extraordinary and has more than special interest in the context of Arts and Crafts stained glass".
Mature work
His own easel pictures, chiefly allegorical in subject, among them ''The Bridge of Life'' (1884) and ''The Mower'' (1891), were exhibited regularly at the Grosvenor Gallery and later at the
New Gallery. ''Neptune's Horses'' was exhibited at the New Gallery in 1893, and with it may be classed his ''Rainbow and the Wave''.
His varied work includes examples of plaster
relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...
,
tiles
Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, walls, edges, or o ...
,
stained glass
Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...
,
pottery
Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and por ...
,
wallpaper
Wallpaper is a material used in interior decoration to decorate the interior walls of domestic and public buildings. It is usually sold in rolls and is applied onto a wall using wallpaper paste. Wallpapers can come plain as "lining paper" (so t ...
and
textile
Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...
designs, in all of which he applied the principle that in purely decorative design "the artist works freest and best without direct reference to nature, and should have learned the forms he makes use of by heart". An exhibition of his work of different kinds was held at the
Fine Art Society
The Fine Art Society is a gallery based in both London and in Edinburgh's New Town (originally Bourne Fine Art, established 1978). The New Bond Street, London gallery closed its doors in August 2018 after being occupied by The Fine Art Society si ...
's galleries in Bond Street in 1891, and taken to the United States in the same year by the artist himself. It was afterwards exhibited in Germany, Austria and Scandinavia.
Crane was elected a member of the
Institute of Painters in Water Colours in 1882, resigning in 1886; two years later he became an associate of the
Water Colour Society (1888); he was an examiner for the
Science and Art Department
The Science and Art Department was a British government body which functioned from 1853 to 1899, promoting education in art, science, technology and design in Britain and Ireland.
Background
The Science and Art Department was created as a subdivis ...
at the
South Kensington Museum
South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west.
Etymology
The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz' ...
; director of design at the
Manchester Municipal School (1894); art director of
Reading College
Reading College is a further education college based in Reading, Berkshire, England. It has over 8,500 local learners on over 900 courses.
The Kings Road site that is the principal location of Reading College has been used for further education ...
(1896); and in 1898 for a short time principal of the
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...
, where he planned a new curriculum intended to bring students into closer contact with tools and materials. His lectures at Manchester were published with illustrated drawings as ''The Bases of Design'' (1898) and ''Line and Form'' (1900). ''The Decorative Illustration of Books, Old and New'' (2nd ed., London and New York, 1900) is a further contribution to theory. A well-known portrait of Crane by
George Frederick Watts
George Frederic Watts (23 February 1817, in London – 1 July 1904) was a British painter and sculptor associated with the Symbolist movement. He said "I paint ideas, not things." Watts became famous in his lifetime for his allegorical wor ...
was exhibited at the New Gallery in 1893.
In 1887, Crane was commissioned by
Emilie Barrington to paint a series of murals to decorate the newly constructed Red Cross Hall in
Southwark
Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...
, a project conceived by the housing campaigner
Octavia Hill
Octavia Hill (3 December 1838 – 13 August 1912) was an English Reform movement, social reformer, whose main concern was the welfare of the inhabitants of cities, especially London, in the second half of the nineteenth century. Born into a fa ...
. Crane produced designs for nine panels, which were displayed at the 1890
Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society
The Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society was formed in London in 1887 to promote the exhibition of decorative arts alongside fine arts. The Society's exhibitions were held annually at the New Gallery (London), New Gallery from 1888 to 1890, and roug ...
show. Ultimately, only three designs were converted into full-size murals, these being: ''
Alice Ayres
Alice Ayres (12 September 1859 – 1885) was an English nursemaid honoured for her bravery in rescuing the children in her care from a house fire. Ayres was a household assistant and nursemaid to the family of her brother-in-law and sister, ...
'' (1890), depicting the heroine of the Union Street fire which had occurred in 1885 just a few streets away; ''Jamieson'' (1892), depicting two Scottish railway workers, Alex Jamieson and his nephew Alexander, who lost their lives in 1874 while working on the Glasgow and Paisley line; and '' Rescue from a Well'' (1894), depicting George Eales, a 58-year-old labourer who in December 1887 at Drummer, near
Basingstoke
Basingstoke ( ) is the largest town in the county of Hampshire. It is situated in south-central England and lies across a valley at the source of the River Loddon, at the far western edge of The North Downs. It is located north-east of Southa ...
in Hampshire, descended into a well to rescue a five-year-old child. After 1894, no further murals were created, partly due to shortages in funding and other commitments, but also because it was discovered that the gas lighting in the hall was damaging the paintings.
[John Price, ''Everyday Heroism: Victorian Constructions of the Heroic Civilian'', p. 79.] The Red Cross Hall is now in private hands and the status of the murals is unknown.
A large mosaic, ''The Sphere and Message of Art'', designed by Crane, was intended for the façade of the
Whitechapel Art Gallery
The Whitechapel Gallery is a public art gallery in Whitechapel on the north side of Whitechapel High Street, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The original building, designed by Charles Harrison Townsend, opened in 1901 as one of the ...
at the time of its construction in 1898. Sadly, sufficient funds were not forthcoming, resulting instead in a frontage clad in buff terracotta tiles. (The drawing still exists.)
Crane was much admired in Hungary and in 1900 Jenő Radisics, the director of the
Budapest Museum of Applied Arts, organised a retrospective of his work there. Crane visited the city in the autumn, was feted, gave lectures and visited Transylvania. He went to Kolozsvár (now
Cluj-Napoca
; hu, kincses város)
, official_name=Cluj-Napoca
, native_name=
, image_skyline=
, subdivision_type1 = Counties of Romania, County
, subdivision_name1 = Cluj County
, subdivision_type2 = Subdivisions of Romania, Status
, subdivision_name2 ...
), Bánffyhunyad (now
Huedin
Huedin ( hu, Bánffyhunyad, ; german: Heynod; yi, הוניוד or הוניאד) is a town in Cluj County, Transylvania, Romania.
Huedin is located at the northern edge of the Apuseni Mountains. It is surrounded by the villages of Nearșova, Dom ...
), and Kalotaszeg (now
Țara Călatei
Țara Călatei ( hu, Kalotaszeg), The Land of Călata, is a region in Transylvania, Romania. It is one of the many areas in Western Romania with a significant Hungarian population, and it is a stronghold of old Transylvanian Hungarian folk tradi ...
) in search of Hungarian traditional art. He recorded the visit in ''Ideals in Art''. Zsuzsa Gonda in her review of Crane’s visit says that it is one of the most extensively documented events in the artistic life of the country in that period. The welcome extended to him was not entirely personal, however: he was the representative of England, the nation that sheltered Kossuth and took him to its heart.
One of Crane's last major works was his
lunette
A lunette (French ''lunette'', "little moon") is a half-moon shaped architectural space, variously filled with sculpture, painted, glazed, filled with recessed masonry, or void.
A lunette may also be segmental, and the arch may be an arc take ...
s at the
Royal West of England Academy
The Royal West of England Academy (RWA) is Bristol's oldest art gallery, located in Clifton, Bristol, near the junction of Queens Road and Whiteladies Road. Situated in a Grade 2* listed building, it hosts five galleries and an exhibition program ...
, which were painted in 1913.
Gallery
File:Walter Crane - The Lady of Shalott - Google Art Project.jpg,
File:Walter T. Crane - Ruth and Boaz (1863).jpg,
File:Walter T. Crane - La belle Dame Sans Merci (1865).jpg,
File:The Frog Asks To Be Allowed To Enter The Castle - Illustration For The Frog Prince by Walter C ... - Walter Crane - ABDAG003355.jpg, ''The Frog Asks To Be Allowed To Enter The Castle'' - Illustration For The Frog Prince, 1874
File:Diana and Endymion - Walter Crane.jpg,
File:Jonquil Masquerade.jpg,
File:Midas gold2.jpg,
File:Can't please everyone2.jpg,
File:464249 Little-Bo-Peep.jpg,
File:Walter-crane-little-red-riding-hood-meets-the-wolf-in-the-woods.jpg,
File:Princess Belle-Etoile 2 - illustration by Walter Crane - Project Gutenberg eText 18344.jpg,
File:The Swan Maidens by Walter Crane 4.jpg,
File:Walter Crane-Cat05.jpg,
Works
''Cartoons for the Cause 1886–1896''London: Twentieth Century Press, 1896 (revised version 1907).
London: G. Bell and Sons, 1900.
''Moot points; friendly disputes on art & industry between Walter Crane & Lewis F. Day.''London, B.T. Batsford, 1903
*''
An Artist's Reminiscences''. New York: Macmillan, 1907.
''William Morris to Whistler'' London: G.Bell and Sons, 1911
See also
*
Royal West of England Academy
The Royal West of England Academy (RWA) is Bristol's oldest art gallery, located in Clifton, Bristol, near the junction of Queens Road and Whiteladies Road. Situated in a Grade 2* listed building, it hosts five galleries and an exhibition program ...
Footnotes
*
Further reading
* Stefan Arvidsson, ''Socialist Style and Mythology. Socialist Idealism 1871-1914.'' Routledge, 2017.
* Helen Stalker, ''From Toy Books to Bloody Sunday: Tales from the Walter Crane Archive.'' Whitworth Art Gallery, 2009.
* Morna O'Neill, ''
'Art and Labour's Cause Is One': Walter Crane and Manchester, 1880–1915.'' Whitworth Art Gallery, 2008.
* Morna O'Neill, ''Walter Crane:'' ''The Arts and Crafts, Painting, and Politics, 1875-1890.'' New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010.
* John Price, ''Everyday Heroism: Victorian Constructions of the Heroic Civilian.'' Bloomsbury, 2014.
External links
*
Catharine T. Patterson Collection of Walter Crane. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
*
Walter Crane Collection. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
Walter Crane (1845–1915) Indiana University
*
*
*
Works by Walter Craneat
Toronto Public Library
Toronto Public Library (TPL) (french: Bibliothèque publique de Toronto) is a public library system in Toronto, Ontario. It is the largest public library system in Canada, and in 2008 had averaged a higher circulation per capita than any other pu ...
*
Worksa
Open Library*
*
*
ttp://cdm16028.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/92353 Pierre Bonnard, the Graphic Art an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Crane (see index)
''Baby's Own Aesop''From the Collections at the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crane, Walter
1845 births
1915 deaths
English illustrators
English children's book illustrators
Arts and Crafts movement artists
English socialists
People associated with the Royal College of Art
Socialist League (UK, 1885) members
Artists from Liverpool
English watercolourists
People associated with the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Golders Green Crematorium
19th-century English painters
English male painters
20th-century English painters
Members of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours
Masters of the Art Worker's Guild
20th-century English male artists
19th-century English male artists