Walter Crane

Walter Crane was a British painter, designer, illustrator and writer. He is best remembered today as an illustrator of children's books, a field in which he was prolific throughout his life. Crane painting featured some of the more colourful and detailed beginnings of the child-in-the-garden motifs that would characterize many nursery rhymes and children's stories for decades to come. Crane designed Art Nouveau textiles and wallpaper that became internationally popular. He became art director first of the Manchester School of Art, then of Reading College, and finally principal of the Royal College of Art, South Kensington, London.