Artist/Maker: Walter Crane - Aberystwyth University School of Art Museums and Galleries

Illustrator and painter. Son of a portrait painter and miniaturist. Apprentice to wood engraver William Linton, 1859-62, who was impressed by Crane’s illustration to Tennyson’s ‘Lady of Shallott’. This was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1862, bust despite the lesser interest in his later work, he is remembered as one of the most prolific and influential children’s book illustrators of his generation. Throughout his career, under the influence of his close friend William Morris, he supported the Socialist ideal to introduce art to the daily lives of all classes, and became part of the Arts and Crafts movement. He was employed by printer Edmund Evans in 1863 to illustrate cheap ‘yellow-back’ novels, and from 1865-76 they collaborated on toy books of nursery rhymes and fairy tales, producing two to three each year. The characteristic sharp outlines and flat colouration of his illustrations shows influence of his study of Japanese art. In the 1880s he designed various textiles and wallpapers for house decoration, as well as tiles, stained glass and pottery. He also provided weekly cartoons for several Socialist newspapers, and in the 1900s designed their front covers. Elected a member of the Institute of Painters in Watercolour, 1882-6, and associate of the Royal Watercolour Society, 1888. For a short time in 1898 he was the principal of the Royal College of Art