Walter Crane
1845-1915
Walter Crane was an English artist, part of the Arts and Crafts movement. He produced portrait paintings, illustrations, children's books, ceramic tiles and other decorative arts. Crane is considered today as one of the most important children's book illustrators as well as miniaturist, influential designer and socialist artist.
Walter Crane was the second son of Thomas Crane, born in Liverpool 1845. His family moved to London in 1857. There he became learner of the famous wood engraver William James Linton. There Crane had become interested in politics and in the 1860s he began to be active.
He early came under the influence of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and was a diligent student of John Ruskin. A set of coloured page designs to illustrate Tennyson's "Lady of Shalott" gained the approval of wood-engraver William James Linton to whom Walter Crane was apprenticed for three years (1859-1862). As a wood-engraver he had abundant opportunity for the minute study of the contemporary artists whose work passed through his hands, of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, Sir John Tenniel and Frederick Sandys, and of the masters of the Italian Renaissance, but he was more influenced by the Elgin marbles in the British Museum. 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-books, which started a new fashion.
By 1870 he was established as an talented book illustrator for children and as a ceramic designer for Wedgwood. By the mid-1870s he was designing wallpapers (for Jeffrey & Co.) and tiles (Maw and Co.). He also had paintings accepted by the Royal Academy and had several exhibitions in London Art Galleries.
In 1881 Crane became close friend with William Morris. They both deplored the effects of modern manufacturing and the commercial system of craftsmanship and design.Crane became involved in the establishment of the Art and Crafts Exhibition Society.
Crane wrote important books on decoration and design, including The Decorative Illustration of Books (1896) and Line and Form (1900).
Walter Crane died on 14th March, 1915, three months after his wife Mary was killed by a train.
|
|
