WALTER CRANE: The Illustrators

Teeming with jewelled colours and fine line illustrations, this volume in Thames & Hudson's The Illustrators series showcases the work of Walter Crane, one of the most influential children's book creators of his generation. While many knew Crane for fantastical children's tales, he was also a leading voice in the aesthetic and Arts and Crafts movements and a powerful socialist. Along with Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenaway, Crane pioneered the child-in-the-garden motifs that would characterise nursery rhymes and children's stories for decades. His Toy books, yellow-backs with eight printed pages with alphabets and counting lessons and fairytales sold for sixpence with the text in a box within the picture. "This littl pig cried We! We!" Here are also his beautiful and aesthetic designs for operas and songs, families, his black and white Grimm illustrations, book frontispieces and wallpaper like the Day Lily of 1897-98. Best of all are the fairytales like Beauty and the Beast 1874 and Pan-Pipes: A Book of Old Songs 1883 with pastoral scenes and musical notations. Distinguished biographer Jenny Uglow expertly narrates a fascinating study of how Crane's art and politics developed from his childhood love of Pre-Raphaelite painting and the influence of the ideas of William Morris and other progressive thinkers. 112 pages, nicely decorated book jacket, hundreds of colour and other artworks and book reproductions in this beautiful and magical, nostalgic and collectible publication. 19 x 25cm.
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