Walter Crane

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Self-portrait, at the age of 21

Walter Crane (born August 15, 1845 in Liverpool , † March 14, 1915 in Horsham , West Sussex ) was an English painter and illustrator and one of the leading exponents of the Arts and Crafts Movement .

Youth and apprenticeship

He was the third child of the portrait painter Thomas Crane († 1859). Shortly after his birth, the family moved to Torquay in the hope that the milder climate would be more conducive to his father's health. Crane was taken out of school because it "got on his nerves". Afterwards he was homeschooled by his father. After the death of their father, they moved to London in 1859. In 1858, a series of sheets that Crane had drawn for Tennyson's poem The Lady of Shalott caught the attention of William James Linton , a well-known wood engraver who owned his own printing press. Impressed by the skills of the 13-year-old, he offered him an apprenticeship in his workshop, which Crane started in January 1859. Over the next three years he learned the art of illustration and engraving. The tasks assigned to him were often difficult, but also gave him the opportunity to study the work of other artists such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti , John Everett Millais , John Tenniel and Frederick Sandys, as well as the masters of the Italian Renaissance. He also attended drawing classes at Heatherly's School of Art.

First successes

After the end of his apprenticeship in 1862, he worked as an illustrator for every opportunity presented, but mainly of religious treatises. His reputation gradually spread and he illustrated series and some books. Linton introduced him to John Richard Wise, whose book The New Forest Crane should be provided with drawings. For this work he lived with Wise and was influenced by his progressive political views. Crane read eagerly now, including books by Percy Bysshe Shelley , John Stuart Mill, and John Ruskin , who not only shaped his political ideas, but also his attitudes towards the craft and the manufacture and design of goods.

Baby's Opera Engraved & Printed in Colors by Edmund Evans 1877

Also in 1862 he made the acquaintance of Edmund Evans, a printer who was involved in the development of color printing. In 1864 they began working together on a series of sixpenny books with nursery rhymes. Although color printing was still limited to three colors, Crane's drawings, which were particularly suitable for printing technology due to their distinctive lines and which could be mass-produced under the publisher George Routledge, made the children's books a hit. So his name quickly became famous, and he made an important contribution with his highly original book illustrations. 10,000 copies of his book Baby's Opera were immediately sold in 1877, and in 1898 there were already 50,000 copies. He produced a total of 37 editions of this Toy Books series over the next ten years. The series was so named because of its handy size for children's hands. For some illustrations he wrote his own poems, such as B. Flora's feast. A masque of flowers , in which the humanized flowers follow a festive parade through the seasons, from the first snowdrops and crocuses of spring to sunflowers to the Christmas rose. Kate Greenaway 's children's books , one of Crane's main competitors, followed a different style. In the last two decades of the 19th century he made the illustrations for 16 children's novels by Mrs. Molesworth . One of his later works in 1900 was a retelling of Don Quixote de la Mancha .

Crane's first painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1862: The Lady of Shalott No further paintings of him were accepted thereafter. Instead, he exhibited at the Dudley of the Royal Watercolor Society and Grosvenor Gallery .

In the late 1860s, George James commissioned Howard Crane and Burne-Jones to create twelve panels based on William Morris' epic poem The Story of Cupid and Psyche for his new house No 1, Palace Green, Kensington .

Crane's great strength, however, was design. His earliest ceramic designs were for Wedgwood in 1867 . From 1874 he designed tiles for Maw & Co. and also for Pilkington, wallpaper for Jeffrey & Co. and embroidery for the Royal School of Needlework (embroidery).

International reputation

Walter Crane, 1886

In 1880 he became Superintendent for Art for the London Decorating Company and began designing both tiles and hollow glass for Maw & Co. His patterns for damask tablecloths were processed by John Wilson & Sons, London. He designed the mosaic frieze for the Arab Hall in Lord Leighton's home and studio in Kensington in 1877.

In the fall of 1891 he traveled with his family to America, where a presentation of his works took place. During his stay in Florida he provided the drawings for Nathaniel Hawthorne's Wonderbook for Boys and Girls, which was published there by Messrs. Houghton and Mifflin, Riverside Press, and later in London by Messrs. Osgood and McIlvaine. In addition, he created black and white drawings for a children's edition by Dante . For Columbias's Courtship , a brief overview of the history of America, he made twelve color drawings, which were then edited by Messrs. L. Prang and Co. in Boston. He also did the illustrations for Margaret Deland's book Our Old Garden .

On his return he created pen drawings for the Shakespeare editions of The Tempest , then The Two Gentlemen of Verona in 1894, and The Merry Wives of Windsor in 1895 . Thomas J. Wise reissued “Spenser's Faerie queene” in 6 books by Edmund Spenser with illustrations by Crane in 1895 , as did Spenser 's “Shepheard's Calendar” in 1898 .

From 1893–1896, Crane's work was shown in Europe and was particularly well received in Germany, where it encountered German symbolism and early Art Nouveau . In 1898 he drew the title page for the Munich magazine Jugend . Many of his pictures were sold in Germany and some can still be found in German museums, such as Neptune's horses in the Neue Pinakothek in Munich.

On October 16, 1900, the largest exhibition of Crane's works was opened in the National Museum of Budapest and made an extraordinary contribution to the spread of the international Arts and Crafts movement.

Crane was represented at exhibitions in Vienna in 1900 and 1901. The first was “The international graphic exhibition of the Association of Austrian Artists ( Secession ) in Vienna”. In January 1901, the complete exhibition of Crane's works in the “Museum of Art and Crafts”, which had come from Budapest to Vienna, with over 1000 pieces. The Austrian Ministry of Culture and Education bought the following wallpapers for the museum: "Kakadu", "The National" and "Sleeping Beauty". For the modern gallery to be founded: “Laura”, “The Harvest in Utopia” and the watercolor painting “Loch Bar”. The Prince von und zu Liechtenstein acquired the following watercolor paintings: "Tabor", "Rievaul Abbey", "Malesic Church" and "Roche Abbey". The watercolor “Sherwood Forest” was purchased for Count Karl Lanckoroński and the watercolor “Scottish Landscape” was purchased for Professor von Fritsch. In Germany, "Britannias Vision", "Mädchen von Athen" and "Amor vincit omnia" could be seen in "Schultes Salon" in Berlin. Some picture cranes were also bought in Venice.

In 1902 Crane was commissioned to organize the British contribution to the International Exhibition of Decorative Art in Turin. For this he received a medal from King Victor Emmanuel, but the Turin exhibition was criticized at home in England.

Socialist and Arts & Craft

In 1888 Crane was instrumental in founding the "Art and Crafts Exhibition Society", of which he became the first president. The aim of the society was to revive the arts through the handicraft and to draw attention to these "craftsmen". The founding members of this society also included William Morris , Edward Burne-Jones , Lewis F. Day , Heywood Sumner , Philip Webb and Onslow Ford .

As rector of the Manchester School of Art from 1893 to 1896, he had mainly organized exhibitions in the Salon de Paris from 1878 and received several prizes between 1898 and 1900, such as a prize at an exhibition in the Brüssler Salon in 1891 .

1897-1898 Crane was director of the Royal College of Art. He remained a member of the board of directors because he was a strong supporter of government sponsored arts education. He wrote important books on art education such as B. The Decorative Illustration of Books (1896) and Line and Form (1900). The Central School of Arts & Crafts was opened by the City of London in 1896 to provide evening classes to educate workers in crafts and applied arts. It was housed on Regent Street on a temporary basis. The direction was the sculptor George Frampton and the architect William Richard Lethaby , who was appointed headmaster in 1902. As early as 1908, the school was able to move into an impressive building on Southampton Row, Holborn.

The prestigious Grosvenor Gallery in London dedicated an exhibition to him. His best-known oil paintings include The Fate of Proserpine and The Birth of Venus . He was also valued as a watercolorist. But he was best known for his illustrations in children's books. Among other things, he illustrated the first edition of the stories The Happy Prince and other fairy tales by Oscar Wilde .

Along with William Morris and Dante Gabriel Rossetti , Crane was not only one of the most important members of the Arts and Crafts Movement , but also its first president. Some saw him as the true father of Art Nouveau .

family

In 1871, Crane married Mary Frances Andrews (1846-1914). There were three children from this marriage:

  • Beatrice * 1873
  • Lionel Francis * 1876 (became an architect)
  • Lancelot * 1880 (became a painter; he made drawings in Thebes in 1910. Nina de Garis Davies had been a student of his father and Lancelot was visiting the Valley of the Kings. Apparently he was a member of the Graphic Expedition of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.)

They first lived in Shepherd's Bush, where Crane met George James Howard , a well-known watercolor painter and friend of Edward Burne-Jones . They then moved to Holland Street, Kensington, a residential area preferred by successful artists. Crane wore the velvet jacket with a loosely tied silk tie that was widespread in the Arts & Craft movement.

Crane was in the Golders Green Crematorium in London cremated , where his ashes is located.

Works (selection)

oil

The Horses of Neptune , Neue Pinakothek
  • The Birth of Venus , bought from E. Seeger, Berlin; located today in the Tate Gallery, London
  • The Horses of Neptune (1892, oil on canvas, 85.6 × 215.0 cm)
  • The fate of Proserpine
  • A mask for the four seasons (1905–1909, oil on canvas), Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt
  • The Fountain of Youth (Der Jungbrunnen, New Gallery, 1901)

watercolor

  • The messenger of spring (1873)
  • Plato's Garden (1875)
  • Almond trees on Monte Pincio (Paris, 1878)

Book illustrations

Illustration for Beauty and the Beast

Books (selection)

literature

  • Walter Crane . In: The True Jacob . No. 243 of November 16, 1895, p. 2062 digitized
  • Otto von Schleinitz: Walter Crane . Velhagen & Klasing, Bielefeld / Leipzig 1902 digitized
  • Percy H. Bate: The English pre-Raphaelite painters, their associates and successors . George Bell & Sons, London 1905, pp. 93 ff. Digitized
  • Luigi Carluccio: the sacret and profane in Symbolist art . Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, November 1 to November 26, 1969.
  • Rodney Engen: Walter Crane as a Book Illustrator. St. Martin's Press, New York 1975 and Academy Editions, London 1975, ISBN 978-0-85670-170-2 .

Web links

Commons : Walter Crane  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ “Willows whiten, aspens quiver” Crane Watercolor 1858–59 ( Memento of the original from January 8, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.victorianweb.org
  2. ^ William James Linton - Biography
  3. ↑ Heatherly's School of Art ( Memento of the original from September 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.heatherleys.org
  4. ^ John Richard Wise: The New Forest: its history and its scenery . Illustrated by Walter Crane, William James Linton engraver. Smith Elder & Co., London 1867
  5. ^ The Illustration of Walter Crane
  6. ^ Mrs. Molesworth's publications
  7. ↑ The Lady of Shalott
  8. ↑ Old Elvet, Durham 1895
  9. ^ The Royal Watercolor Society
  10. ↑ Birmingham Museums & Art Galleries
  11. ^ Letters between Walter Crane and Wedgwood, c. 1867–1871 - Collection: The Wedgwood Museum Archive Collection
  12. ↑ Crane tiles for Maw & Co.
  13. ^ Crane tiles for Pilkington
  14. ↑ Jeffrey & Co's Artistic Wallpapers. Advertisement 1907 in the V&A Museum in London
  15. ^ The Royal School of Needlework
  16. ↑ John Wilson Successor's Ltd. of London - 1906 Advertisement
  17. ^ Leighton House Museum
  18. ↑ Wonderbook for Boys and Girls on archive.org
  19. ↑ The shepheard's calender: twelve aeglogues proportionable to the twelve monethes. Newly adorned with twelve pictures and other devices by Walter Crane . Publisher: Harper, London 1898
  20. ↑ Advertisement for a lecture by Walter Crane in Budapest, 1900 ( memento of the original from October 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / collectionsonline.lacma.org
  21. ↑ Otto von Schleinitz: Walter Crane. P. 144
  22. ↑ International Exhibition of Modern Decorative Art - Torino, 1902 ( Memento of the original of November 2, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.dhub-bcn.cat
  23. ^ The Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society
  24. ^ Crane with Manchester School of Art
  25. ^ Central School of Arts and Crafts, founded November 2, 1896
  26. ^ The Central School of Arts & Crafts
  27. ^ Facsimile of the south side of the sarcophagus of King Haremhab in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
  28. ^ Graphic Expedition of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
personal data
SURNAME Crane, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British painter
DATE OF BIRTH August 15, 1845
PLACE OF BIRTH Liverpool
DATE OF DEATH March 14, 1915
Place of death Horsham , West Sussex