Walter Crane individual works – part 5

Walter Crane individual works – part 5

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 5 of a 6-part series on individual works by Walter Crane:

1896 Daffodil and Bluebell
looped pile Brussels carpeting in wool and jute
James Templeton & Co.

1896 Lily, Pink and Columbine
sample of Brussels carpet 137.1 x 68.5 cm
V&A Museum, London

1896 Meadow Flowers wallpaper
colour woodblock print on paper 96.5 x 55.2

1896 Meadow Flowers wallpaper
colour woodblock print on paper 96.5 x 55.2

1896 The May Tree wallpaper frieze for Jeffrey & Co.
58.2 x 99.5 cm

c1896 Ecclesiastical Embroidery design attributed to Crane
linen and cotton plain weave with silk embroidery 149.9 x 160.7 cm
Philadephia Museum of Art, PA

1897 ‘National’ wallpaper for Jeffrey & Co.
colour woodblock print on paper

1897 ‘National’ wallpaper for Jeffrey & Co.
colour woodblock print on paper

1897 ‘National’ wallpaper for Jeffrey & Co.
colour woodblock print on paper 142.3 x 105.4 cm

1897 Day Lily wallpaper
colour woodblock print on paper

1897 Day Lily wallpaper
colour woodblock print on paper

1897 Day Lily wallpaper
colour woodblock print on paper

1897 Harper’s Round Table No.1 November issue
wood engraving

1897 Marcus Ward & Co. Calendar
The printing and greetings card company, UK

1897-98 The Day Lily
colour woodblock print on paper  74.5 x 50.8 cm
1898 Jugend
cover of the German magazine

c1898 Beauty’s Awakening: A Masque for Winter and Spring
Art Worker’s Guild Costume Design
tracings of costume design after Crane’s originals

1899 Cockatoo and Pomegranate wallpaper
colour woodblock print on paper 88.9 x 51.5 cm

1899 Design for costume for ‘The Snowman’
(Fairy Princess Ariella)
body-colour on brown paper 36.6 x 27.9 cm

1899 Design for Costume for ‘The Snowman’
(Elves, Fairy-Architect & Builder)
body-colour on brown paper 36.8 x 28 cm

1899 The Cause of Labour is the Hope of the World
©The Trustees of the British Museum

1900 Advertisement for a Lecture by Walter Crane in Budapest
lithograph poster 30.1 x 22.8 cm
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA

before 1900 The Corona Vitae wallpaper and frieze design
process half-tone engraving on paper

1900 Britomart
watercolour on paper
Library of the Arts Décoratifs, Paris

1900 Lily wallpaper by Jeffrey & Co.
colour woodblock print on paper 73.6 x 52 cm

1900 Lion and Dove wallpaper frieze
colour woodblock print on paper 68.5 x 111.7 cm

1900 Rose Bush wallpaper
colour woodblock print on paper91.5 x 54.6 cm

1900-01 Flora’s Train Earthenware tiles with relief decoration and coloured glazes for Pilkington’s Tile and Pottery Co.

c1900 Correspondence Card
process engraving 8.8 x 11.4 cm

c1900s Programme for Grande Fête Française
colour lithograph 13.9 x 24.1 cm

1901 Masque of Days
 pen and black ink over graphite on card
© The Trustees of the British Museum

1902 Francesca wallpaper
colour woodblock print on paper produced by Jeffrey & Co., England
89.5 x 51.5 cm

1902 Golden Pheasant
furnishing fabric block-printed cotton 92.7 x 135.8 cm

1902 Golden Pheasant
detail

1902 Golden Pheasant
detail

1902 International Fraternity the True Basis of Universal Peace.
A Souvenir of Labour’s May Day, 1902
process engraving 27.4 x 14.4 cm

1902 Invitation Card
process engraving 13.3 x 7.6 cm

1902 Laveno, Italy
watercolour drawing on brown paper 43.4 x 33.2 cm

1903 Fruit wallpaper frieze
colour woodblock print on paper by Jeffrey & Co.
53.3 x 105 cm

1903 Invitation Card
process engraving 18.8 x 10.1 cm

1903 Iris
watercolour design for a printed textile
90.2 x 43.2 cm

1904 Dulce Domum wallpaper
colour woodblock print on paper 85.1 x 54 cm

1904 Dulce Domum wallpaper
colour woodblock print on paper 85.1 x 54 cm

Dulce Domum wallpaper
colour woodblock print on paper 85.1 x 54 cm

1904 Myrtle Wreath wallpaper
colour woodblock print on paper 83.8 x 57.2 cm

1904 Oak wallpaper corner-piece
colour woodblock print on paper
One of thirty-eight portions in different colour ways

1904 Oak wallpaper corner-piece

1904 Oak wallpaper corner-piece

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