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WALTER CRANE (1845– )

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 367 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WALTER See also:CRANE (1845– )  , See also:English artist, second son of See also:Thomas See also:Crane, portrait painter and miniaturist, was See also:born in See also:Liverpool on the 15th of See also:August 1845 . The See also:family soon removed to See also:Torquay, where the boy gained his See also:early See also:artistic impressions, and, when he was twelve years old, to See also:London . He early came under the See also:influence of the Pre-Raphaelites, and was a diligent student of See also:Ruskin . A set of coloured See also:page designs to illustrate See also:Tennyson's " See also:Lady of Shalott " gained the approval of See also:William See also:James See also:Linton, the See also:wood-engraver, to whom See also:Walter Crane was apprenticed for three years (1859-1862) . As a wood-engraver he had abundant opportunity for the See also:minute study of the contemporary artists whose See also:work passed through his hands, of See also:Rossetti, See also:Millais, See also:Tenniel and F . See also:Sandys, and of the masters of the See also:Italian See also:Renaissance, but he was more influenced by the See also:Elgin See also:marbles in the See also:British Museum . A further and important See also:element in the development of his See also:talent, was the study of See also:Japanese See also:colour-prints, the methods of which he imitated in a See also:series of See also:toy-books, which started a new See also:fashion . In 1862 a picture of his, " The Lady of Shalott," was exhibited at the Royal See also:Academy, but the Academy steadily refused his maturer work; and after the opening of the Grosvenor See also:Gallery in 1877 he ceased to send pictures to See also:Burlington See also:House . In 1864 he began to illustrate for Mr See also:Edmund See also:Evans, the colour printer, a series of sixpenny toy-books of nursery rhymes, displaying admirable See also:fancy and beauty of See also:design, though he was limited to the use of three See also:colours . He was allowed more freedom in a delightful series begun in 1873, The See also:Frog See also:Prince, &c., which showed markedly the influence of Japanese See also:art, and of a See also:long visit to See also:Italy following on his See also:marriage in 1871 . The Baby's See also:Opera was a See also:book of English nursery songs planned in 1877 with Mr Evans, and a third series of See also:children's books with the collective See also:title, A See also:Romance of the Three R's, provided a See also: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 See also:illustration by See also:printing in the words of the poem himself, in the view that this See also:union of the calligrapher's and the decorator's art was one See also:secret of the beauty of the old illuminated books .

He followed the same course in The First of May: A See also:

Fairy Masque by his friend See also:John R . See also:Wise, See also:text and decoration being in this See also:case reproduced by photogravure . The " See also:Goose Girl " illustration taken from his beautiful See also:Household Stories from See also:Grimm (1882) was reproduced in See also:tapestry by William See also:Morris, and is now in the See also:South See also:Kensington Museum . See also:Flora's Feast, A Masque of See also:Flowers had lithographic reproductions of Mr Crane's See also:line drawings washed in with See also:water colour; he also decorated in colour The Wonder Book of Nathaniel See also:Hawthorne, and See also:Margaret Deland's Old See also:Garden; in 1894 he collaborated with William Morris in the page decoration of The See also:Story of the Glittering See also:Plain, published at the Kelmscott See also:press, which was executed in the See also:style of 16th-See also:century Italian and See also:German woodcuts; but in purely decorative See also:interest the finest of his See also:works in book illustration is See also:Spenser's Faerie Queene (12 pts., 1894–1896) and the Shepheard's See also:Calendar . The poems which See also:form the text of See also:Queen Summer (1891), Renascence (1891), and The See also:Sirens Three (1886) are by the artist himself . In the early 'eighties under Morris's influence he was closely associated with the Socialist See also:movement . He did as much as Morris himself to bring art into the daily See also:life of all classes . With this See also:object in view he devoted much See also:attention to designs for textile stuffs, for See also:wall-papers, and to house decoration; but he also used his art for the See also:direct See also:advancement of the Socialist cause . For a long See also:time he provided the weekly cartoons for the Socialist See also:organs, See also:Justice and The Commonweal . Many of these were collected as Cartoons for the Cause . He devoted much time and See also:energy to the work of the Art Workers' Guild, and to the Arts and Crafts See also:Exhibition Society, founded by him in 1888 . His own easel pictures, chiefly allegorical in subject, among them " The See also:Bridge of Life " (1884) and " The Mower " (1891), were exhibited regularly at the Grosvenor Gallery and later at the New Gallery .

" See also:

Neptune's Horses," which, with many other of Mr Crane's pictures, came into the See also:possession of Herr See also:Ernst Seeger of See also:Berlin, was exhibited at the New Gallery in 1893, and with it may be classed his " The See also:Rainbow and the See also:Wave." His varied work includes examples of See also:plaster See also:relief, tiles, stained See also:glass, pottery, wall-See also:paper 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 See also:heart." An exhibition of his work of different kinds was held at the See also:Fine Art Society's galleries in See also:Bond See also:Street in 1891, and taken over to the See also:United States in the same See also:year by the artist himself . It was afterwards exhibited in the See also:chief German, See also:Austrian and Scandinavian towns, arousing See also:great interest throughout the See also:continent . Mr Crane became an See also:associate of the Water Colour Society in 1888; he was an examiner of the See also:science and art See also:department at South Kensington; director of design at the See also:Manchester Municipal school (1894); art director of See also:Reading See also:College (1896);and in 1898 for a See also:short time See also:principal of the Royal College of Art . 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 See also:York, 1900) is a further contribution to theory . A well-known portrait of Mr Crane by G . F . See also:Watts, R.A., was exhibited at the New Gallery in 1893 . There is a comprehensive and sumptuously illustrated book on The Art of Walter Crane, by P . G . Konody; a monograph (1902) by See also:Otto von Schleinitz in the Kiinstler Monographien series (See also:Bielefeld and See also:Leipzig) ; and an See also:account of himself by the artist in the See also:Easter number of 1898 of the Art See also:Journal .

End of Article: WALTER CRANE (1845– )
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