ART & ARTISTS: Walter Crane

Friday 14 June 2024

Walter Crane - part 7

Walter Crane (15 August 1845 – 14 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 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 characterise 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.

For more in-depth biographical notes see part 1, and for earlier works see parts 1 - 6 also.

This is part 7 of a 19-part series on the works of Walter Crane.

1877 The Baby's Opera

published by Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd., London

The Baby's Opera is one of the classic cooperations between Walter Crane and Edmund Evans. It's a picture book with a selection of well-known children's songs and nursery rhymes with lyrics, sheet music and illustrations. Some of the songs are accompanied with full page pictures but most are only decorated with colourful borders and whimsical details, so typical for Crane's style.