Walter Crane individual works – part 2

Walter Crane individual works – part 2

Walter Crane (1845-1915) was born in Liverpool, England; the second son of Thomas Crane, a portrait painter and miniaturist. He was a fluent follower of the newer art movements and he came to study and appreciate the detailed senses of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and was also a diligent student of the renowned artist and critic 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 Pre-Raphaelites Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Everett Millais, as well as Alice in Wonderland illustrator Sir John Tenniel and Frederick Sandys. 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.

For more information on Crane, and for a series on his illustrated books, see “Walter Crane books” in the side index.

This is part 2 of a 6-part series on individual works by Walter Crane:

1877 Portion of wallpaper dado
colour print from wood blocks 38.8 x 55.8 cm on paper

1877 Portion of wallpaper dado
colour print from wood blocks, on paper 38.8 x 55.8 cm

1877 The Renaissance of Venus 
tempera on canvas 138.4 x 184.1 cm
Tate Gallery, London

1877 The Renaissance of Venus
process engraving 5.3 x 7.1 cm

1877-94 Chapel of St. Mary’s College
wood engraving after a painting 16.2 x 12.9 cm

1878 Almond Blossom and Swallow wallpaper by Jeffrey & Co.
colour print from wood blocks 54.3 x 72.5 cm

1878 Design for a wallpaper depicting almond blossom and wallflowers
 gouache on paper 37.8 x 53.3 cm

1878 Portion of a wallpaper frieze
colour woodblock print on paper 53.3 x 49 cm

c1879 Flower Holder decoration taken from an illustration
by Crane
vitro-porcelain made by Sowerby & Co., Ellison GlassWorks
11 x 8.2 cm


c1880 Truth and the Traveller
process engraving 6.3 x 14.2 cm

c1880 Man encountering beast in doorway
pen and ink on card 30.5 x 24.1 cm

1880 Art at Home Series
pen and ink on paper 31 x 19.1 cm 
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

1880 Art at Home Series
 pencil on paper 28.7 x 21.9 cm
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

1881 Europa
process engraving 6.3 x 19.5 cm

c1882 Household stories from the collection of the
 Brothers Grimm
Published in London by Macmillan & Co.

1883 Diana and the Shepherd
process engraving 9.6 x 13.4 cm

1883 Spring
process engraving 16.2 x 8.1 cm

1883-1913 The English Illustrated Magazine
advertising poster lithograph 52 x 39.5 cm

1884 Longman’s Magazine Christmas Number
wood engraving

1884 Pan Pipes
pen and black ink and watercolour
© The Trustees of the British Museum

1884 The Bridge of Life
process engraving 8.6 x 13.4 cm

1884 The English Illustrated Magazine No.14 November issue
wood engraving

1884-90 St. Nicholas magazine cover
wood engraving
Frederick Warne & Co. London

1884-90 London Pupil Teachers Association Record
wood engraving

1884-90 Time No.8 magazine cover
wood engraving

c1884 Valentine card
colour lithograph 24.6 x 20.5 cm

1885 Freedom
process engraving 7.1 x 4.8 cm

1885 Ruins of the Bishop’s Palace, St. David’s
engraving 10.1 x 7.6 cm

1885 St Davi’s Cathedral, from the Close
engraving 10.1 7.6 cm

c1885 Law Union & Crown Insurance Company
colour process engraving advertising life and fire insurance depicting two allegorical figures representing mercy and justice

c1885 Sun Life Assurance Company
lithograph

1886 “Woodnotes” wallpaper
colour woodblock print on paper

1886 Design for the wallpaper ‘The Golden Age’
watercolour and body-colour on paper 101 x 66.7 cm
V&A Musem, London

1886 Fiametta
process engraving 16.5 x 6.6 cm

1886 Signs of the Times, No 1.
“Mrs Grundy frightened at her Shadow.”
wood engraving 30.7 x 21 cm

1886 The Practical Socialist, February issue
wood engraving

c1886 Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society Catalogue
lithograph and wood engraving 

c1886 Institute of Painters in Oil Colours  3rd Exhibition
Illustrated Catalogue

c1886 The Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours
catalogue cover

1887 Deer and Rabbits wallpaper frieze
colour print from wood blocks on paper 50.8 x 70.6 cm

1887 Echoes of Hellas by Professor G C Warr and Walter Crane
design for a book cover?
© The Trustees of the British Museum

1887 The British Empire furnishing fabric
made by Edmund Potter & Co. 79.4 x 36 cm

1887 The Chariots of the Hour
process engraving 7.1 x 19.8 cm

1887 The Golden Age wallpaper
colour woodblock print on paper 85.1 x 49.2 cm

1887 The Golden Age wallpaper
colour woodblock print on paper 116.9 x 54 cm

1887 The Hour Glass monthly magazine
September issue

1887 Wall covering “The Golden Age”
embossed leather with brown-and-gold lacquer 79.4. x 59.1 cm

c1887 Design for the cover of a wallpaper brochure for
Jeffrey & Co.
38.3 x 28 cm
V&A Museum, London

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