Walter Crane and Mythology in Children's Books

Walter Crane

Illustration is all about ideas and inspiration which can be turned into a theme relevant to the story – whether it is for a children’s book, painting or editorial illustration.

From her list of inspiring illustrators Chloe Yelland has selected Walter Crane, who demonstrated a unique focus of fairytale combined with mythology, specifically Greek.


Walter Crane (1845-1915), a key figurative book illustrator and decorative artist of the nineteenth century, serves as a perfect example of how fairytale was combined with mythology, primarily due to his use of many themes which influenced his work within the Aesthetic Movement, an organization of which he was a key believer.

In 1863, British painter William Rothenstein said: 

‘Nowhere is the peculiar character of the mid-Victorian aesthetic movement better interpreted than in the children’s picture books’

which reinforces how Crane demonstrated a constructive use of imagination through characterization, where enchantment and mythological subjects within the fairytale, better referred to as romantic themes, appear through a narrative perspective.

Crane utilised symbolism and the legendary medieval world and combined them with fairytale and myth to connect with the Aesthetic movement. These elements are established through art and literature so that readers can appreciate both the beauty and meaning.

Beauty and the Beast by Walter Crane, 1874

Take Walter Crane’s Beauty and the Beast as an example. In a statement surrounding Aestheticism and myth, art historian Elizabeth Prettejohn describes Crane’s methods as

"the intextuality of the movement through art as well as literature"

The fan is a symbol of the birth of Venus, a reference to either the Roman goddess of love and beauty, or Aphrodite from Greek Mythology. In the illustration above the woman is holding the fan to represent comeliness within the context of the story, whereas the beast is desperate to find the love of a beautiful woman to break his curse.


 

Front cover of modern edition

One other feature that fascinates me is characterization. In Beauty and the Beast there are hints of medievalism, combined with aestheticism. Taking clothing as an example, you can see that they are from different ages despite the scenery being Victorian. The woman has a combination of classical Greek dress to demonstrate her beauty as the first main protagonist to the fairytale. And the beast is wearing an old Turkish uniform which associates with Victorian Medievalism in reference to his partial humanity, which he masks through the suffering he is forced to endure - some may call it a punishment - for his selfish actions.

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Chloe Yelland is a student at Derby University, studying for her BA (Hons) in Illustration. Her blog is here, or follow her on Twitter.

Jan Ormerod

Jan Ormerod, who passed away earlier this year, was a much loved picture book illustrator and author. Born in Western Australia in 1946, Jan later settled in the UK, where her first picture book ‘Sunshine’ won the Mother Goose Award in 1982, the first of a remarkable series of books for children. Gillian McClure, who knew her well, here offers a personal memory.


I first knew Jan when her girls, Laura and Sophie were little and she lived in Cambridge in a terraced house, like mine by the river Cam.  My youngest son and Laura went to the same school and I was often popping over to Jan’s house to enjoy a cup of tea and a chat beside her Aga. It was all very homely there with two pet rabbits hopping around the garden.

Jan (on the right) in 2008 with Jana Novotna-Hunter and Amanda Hall at the Bologna Book Fair.

Later Jan went to live in Rutland and we did not see so much of each other except at the Bologna Book Fair where we often shared self catering accommodation with a group of UK illustrators.  Jan attended the Fair to see her Australian publishers, Little Hare, but there was also a lot of time to enjoy the parties the different publishers threw and to sit in the Piazza Maggiore enjoying the wine and sunshine. Once we went to an exhibition of artwork by Lisbeth Zwerger and I remember Jan being very taken with the way Zwerger drew people and children. 

Jan herself will always be remembered for the way she drew children.

In Moonlight, the companion book to her first, award winning, picture book, Sunshine, she is able to show the tenderness between a father and daughter and capture all the stances and mannerisms of small children.

She could draw babies like nobody else –

Like this one in Lizzie Nonsense, inspired by her Australian grandmother. –

Jan was brought up in Western Australia and she captures the heat of that arid land in WaterWitcher, by using a limited palette and strong black line.  

Again it’s the life and humour in her drawings of the children that make this book so special. 

She once said, “My books have largely been a celebration and savoring of the positive experience of parenthood.”

But I think she did more than that. Jan had the ability to capture love, without sentimentality, between the pages of a book; here, a mother-daughter love in this picture from Lizzie Nonsense.

All images © Little Hare Press and Frances Lincoln, reproduced with thanks.

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Gillian McClure has had many books published and has accumulated a great many illustrations. She has served on the CWIG committee, the Public Lending Right Advisory Committee, was a 2006-7 New Writing Partnership Escalator judge/mentor, and a Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow at Kent University 2005-8 and Essex University 2011-12. In 2010 she started her own publishing company, Plaister Press, to celebrate the art of the picture book. She blogs on writing and illustrating.