  walter crane (liverpool 15 august 1845 &ndash; 14 march 1915 horsham) was an english artist and book illustrator. he is considered to be the most influential, and among the most prolific, childrenâs book creator of his generation and, along with randolph caldecott and kate greenaway, one of the strongest to the child's nursery motif that the genre of english children's illustrated literature would exhibit in its developmental stages in the latter 19th century. his work 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. he was part of the arts and crafts movement and produced an array of paintings, illustrations, children's books, ceramic tiles and other decorative arts. ==biography==  ===early life and influences=== crane was 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 in 1859&ndash;62. 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. he was a student who admired the masters of the italian renaissance, however he was more i
1845_births 1915_deaths Artists_from_Liverpool Arts_and_Crafts_Movement_artists British_children\'s_book_illustrators English_illustrators English_socialists English_watercolourists Golders_Green_Crematorium People_associated_with_the_Museum_of_New_Zealand_Te_Papa_Tongarewa People_associated_with_the_Royal_College_of_Art Socialist_League_(UK,_1885)_members