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| Crane constellation in the southern sky observed by Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser |
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.
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.
Randolph Caldecott, 'Lord of the Nursery', and: Walter Crane as a Book Illustrator (review)
This book is the third in bantam "World of Realism" series, and includes a wide range of pyle's work in illustration of folkflore, fantasy, and romantic fiction, as well as a number of his meticulously researched historical studies. The very scope of this collection is a reminder of the unique artistic, social, and commercial context which produced the market for the artists of the pyle tradition. Studies like those pitz has done of the brandywine school, and study collection like that at the delaware art museum remind us that illustrative art tells us a great deal not only about an artist's taste and vision, but about the interests and expectations of his public. As Rowland, curator of collections at the delaware art museum puts it in his introduction to bantam's howard pyle, pyle's work, like that of the other great illustrators of his time, "deserves to be seen again," not only for "visual delight," the "imaginative power" the "charm, humor and decorative value" it offers, but because such work offers "an intimate insight into the ways of life and minds of a previous generation."
Susan Gannon
Pace Unuversity
Susan Gannon
Pace Unuversity
Rodney K. Engen. Randolph Caldecott, 'Lord of the Nursery.'London: Oresko Books Ltd., 1976.
Rodney K. Engen. Walter Crane as a Book Illustrator. London: Academy Editions and New York: St. Martin's Press, 1975.
These two books explain the importance of Crane and Caldecott in the tradition of British book illustration. In introductions to each book, Engen gives a brief biography of the artist, including the various influences on him and the variety of illustration each did during his career. The books do not concentrate on the artists' reputations as illustrators solely of children's books, although such considerations are certainly included. And although Engen criticizes Crane's illustrations as being overly ornate and not as dramatic as Caldecott's line drawings in the Caldecott book, such criticism is not present in the Crane book. This seems to be a critical evasion on Engen's part.
After the introduction Engen includes a sizeable sample of the artists' illustrations, a fair representation of all the kinds of illustration that each artist did, as well as the classics, such as Crane's illustrations of Perrault's and the Grimms' fairy tales and Caldecott's John Gilpin and The Queen of Hearts. Some of the reproduction is not high quality; there are fuzzy photostats of some of the pictures in both books, and many pictures that should have been reproduced in color, like the original John Gilpin, show up in black and white, losing much of their effectiveness in the process. The shiny paper in the Caldecott book further detracts from inspecting the plates. Finally, the copy-editing is not adequate; a run-on sentence slips in (Caldecott, p. 12), for example, and part of the commentary for the illustration on p. 79 clearly belongs to the illustration on p. 76, which is wrongly labeled. But the arrangement of the commentary on the illustrations is certainly better in the Caldecott book, where the explanations are placed facing the pictures, than in the Crane book, where the explanations are grouped together, followed by pages of illustration with no comment. Useful appendices provide an extensive catalogue of the artist's work as well as bibliographical sources.
While the books are interesting for one unfamiliar with Crane's and Caldecott's work, they are not adequate if one wants to learn of the special contributions Crane and Caldecott made to children's book illustration.
Ruth K. MacDonald
Northeastern University
Rodney K. Engen. Walter Crane as a Book Illustrator. London: Academy Editions and New York: St. Martin's Press, 1975.
These two books explain the importance of Crane and Caldecott in the tradition of British book illustration. In introductions to each book, Engen gives a brief biography of the artist, including the various influences on him and the variety of illustration each did during his career. The books do not concentrate on the artists' reputations as illustrators solely of children's books, although such considerations are certainly included. And although Engen criticizes Crane's illustrations as being overly ornate and not as dramatic as Caldecott's line drawings in the Caldecott book, such criticism is not present in the Crane book. This seems to be a critical evasion on Engen's part.
After the introduction Engen includes a sizeable sample of the artists' illustrations, a fair representation of all the kinds of illustration that each artist did, as well as the classics, such as Crane's illustrations of Perrault's and the Grimms' fairy tales and Caldecott's John Gilpin and The Queen of Hearts. Some of the reproduction is not high quality; there are fuzzy photostats of some of the pictures in both books, and many pictures that should have been reproduced in color, like the original John Gilpin, show up in black and white, losing much of their effectiveness in the process. The shiny paper in the Caldecott book further detracts from inspecting the plates. Finally, the copy-editing is not adequate; a run-on sentence slips in (Caldecott, p. 12), for example, and part of the commentary for the illustration on p. 79 clearly belongs to the illustration on p. 76, which is wrongly labeled. But the arrangement of the commentary on the illustrations is certainly better in the Caldecott book, where the explanations are placed facing the pictures, than in the Crane book, where the explanations are grouped together, followed by pages of illustration with no comment. Useful appendices provide an extensive catalogue of the artist's work as well as bibliographical sources.
While the books are interesting for one unfamiliar with Crane's and Caldecott's work, they are not adequate if one wants to learn of the special contributions Crane and Caldecott made to children's book illustration.
Ruth K. MacDonald
Northeastern University
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, tiles, stained glass, pottery, wallpaper, and textile 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'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 at the South Kensington Museum; director of design at the Manchester Municipal School (1894); art director of Reading College (1896); and in 1898 for a short time principal of the Royal College of Art, 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 was exhibited at the New Gallery in 1893.
Crane was much admired in Hungary and in 1900 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), Bánffyhunyad (now Huedin), and Kalotaszeg (now Țara Călatei) 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.
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, tiles, stained glass, pottery, wallpaper, and textile 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'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 at the South Kensington Museum; director of design at the Manchester Municipal School (1894); art director of Reading College (1896); and in 1898 for a short time principal of the Royal College of Art, 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 was exhibited at the New Gallery in 1893.
Crane was much admired in Hungary and in 1900 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), Bánffyhunyad (now Huedin), and Kalotaszeg (now Țara Călatei) 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.
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The Moat and Bishop's Palace, Wells Cathedral Watercolor Delaware Art Museum Wilmington | United States 
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Pandora Reclining In A Wooded Landscape Louis Hersent |
Reference Pandora's Box; Elizabeth Gage, Bantam, 1990 |
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A Dream Voyage Pastel National Gallery Praha - Staré Mesto | Czech Republic |
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