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Flowers from Shakespeare's Garden
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
- GenresArtShakespeareGardening
40 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1909
About the author
Walter Crane
652 books31 followersWalter Crane was an English artist and book illustrator. He is considered, along with Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenaway, one of the strongest contributors 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 colorful 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. Crane is also remembered for his creation of a number of iconic images associated with the international Socialist movement.
His work featured some of the more colorful 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. Crane is also remembered for his creation of a number of iconic images associated with the international Socialist movement.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 3, 2022
oh to be the hawthorn bush...
July 30, 2023
3.5 stars. This is a 1980 reproduction of a 1906 book by Walter Crane with good printing quality.
Crane was one of the early artists in the Golden Age of Children’s Book Illustration, a Victorian and pioneer of the genre, and a contemporary of Randolph Caldecott (whom the Caldecott Award is named for) and Kate Greenaway, whose illustrations launched a children’s fashion craze.
I cam across this book at an Antiquarian Book show. It was written and illustrated at the end of Crane’s career, and seems perhaps aimed more at adults than children. THe subjects are adults, and two illustrations show women topless, though artistically. Lines referencing flowers from Shakespeare’s plays are accompanied by illustrations of men and women in clothing inspired by those flowers. The dedication is to the Countess of Warwick whose garden inspired the illustrations.
As a gardener, Shakespeare fan and collector of picture books with beautiful illustrations, this was right down my alley. There’s an Art Deco style to the art, most of the gowns are slim with lots of Grecian-style draping. The details in most indeed reflected the plants showing Crane’s careful study of the plants. There were one or two that looked slightly off to me, but that may be due to different subspecies of plants and a century of hybridizing. For example, the daffodils are not the trumpet type most of us think of, but may have been inspired by the small petticoat species daffodils.
There’s a reference in the jacket copy that this was part of a series of books of “flower fantasy” books, and I wonder if Cecily Mary Barker, who started illustrating her flower fairies about twenty years later, took her inspiration from Crane, or if this was just a trend of the era in general. Regardless, it’s a lovely book to look through.
Crane was one of the early artists in the Golden Age of Children’s Book Illustration, a Victorian and pioneer of the genre, and a contemporary of Randolph Caldecott (whom the Caldecott Award is named for) and Kate Greenaway, whose illustrations launched a children’s fashion craze.
I cam across this book at an Antiquarian Book show. It was written and illustrated at the end of Crane’s career, and seems perhaps aimed more at adults than children. THe subjects are adults, and two illustrations show women topless, though artistically. Lines referencing flowers from Shakespeare’s plays are accompanied by illustrations of men and women in clothing inspired by those flowers. The dedication is to the Countess of Warwick whose garden inspired the illustrations.
As a gardener, Shakespeare fan and collector of picture books with beautiful illustrations, this was right down my alley. There’s an Art Deco style to the art, most of the gowns are slim with lots of Grecian-style draping. The details in most indeed reflected the plants showing Crane’s careful study of the plants. There were one or two that looked slightly off to me, but that may be due to different subspecies of plants and a century of hybridizing. For example, the daffodils are not the trumpet type most of us think of, but may have been inspired by the small petticoat species daffodils.
There’s a reference in the jacket copy that this was part of a series of books of “flower fantasy” books, and I wonder if Cecily Mary Barker, who started illustrating her flower fairies about twenty years later, took her inspiration from Crane, or if this was just a trend of the era in general. Regardless, it’s a lovely book to look through.
May 13, 2020
Absolutely gorgeous illustrations
Want to Read
February 25, 202426 bol
February 21, 2026
The illustrations are next level, and so creatively well done
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews