Kate Greenaway Pictures

London: Frederick Warne and Co., 1921. Kate Greenaway’s “Pictures”

[GREENAWAY, Kate, illustrator]. Kate Greenaway Pictures. From Originals Presented by Her to John Ruskin and Other Personal Friends (Hitherto Unpublished). With an Appreciation by H.M. Cundall…London: Frederick Warne and Co., 1921.

First edition. Quarto (12 x 9 3/4 inches; 305 x 245 mm.). [7], 8-11, [12-52] pp. Mounted frontispiece portrait of Greenaway (ca. 1895) and twenty mounted color plates, with descriptive tissue guards.

Original olive green cloth over beveled boards with beige cloth spine. Front cover lettered in gilt and dark green. Spine lettered (truncated) in dark green. Top edge trimmed, others uncut. Green marbled endpapers. Slight staining to bottom left corner of front cover. Previous owner’s neat gift inscription dated 1921. A very good copy. In the original beige dust jacket printed in olive green, lightly rubbed and with small piece missing from front flap.

This work looks at her original art, presented by her to John Ruskin, and other friends of hers.

Catherine Greenaway (1846-1901) was an English Victorian artist and writer, known for her children's book illustrations. She received her education in graphic design and art between 1858 and 1871 from the Finsbury School of Art, the South Kensington School of Art, the Heatherley School of Art, and the Slade School of Fine Art. She began her career designing for the burgeoning holiday card market, producing Christmas and Valentine's cards. In 1879 wood-block engraver and printer Edmund Evans printed Under the Window, an instant best-seller, which established her reputation. Her collaboration with Evans continued throughout the 1880s and 1890s. The depictions of children in imaginary 18th-century costumes in a Queen Anne style were extremely popular in England and internationally, sparking the Kate Greenaway style. Within a few years of the publication of Under the Window Greenaway's work was imitated in England, Germany, and the United States.

This work looks at her original art, presented by her to John Ruskin, and other friends of hers. Greenaway was a Victorian artist, well beloved for her children's book illustrations, produced in the Golden Age of book illustration. Most of her drawings depiction Queen Anne style costume, an imaginary eighteenth century style rather than Victorian.

Schuster & Engen 229. Thomson 90. (Inventory #: 00126)