Lucy Crane (1842–1882) was an English writer, art critic and translator. She worked on children's stories and

nursery rhymes A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and other European countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes. Fro ...

and lectured in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

fine art In European academic traditions, fine art (or, fine arts) is made primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from popular art, decorative art or applied art, which also either serve some practical function (such as ...

Life

Crane was born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

in 1842 as the daughter of the portrait and miniature painter Thomas Crane. Her elder brother

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...

and younger brother

Walter Walter may refer to: People and fictional characters * Walter (name), including a list of people and fictional and mythical characters with the given name or surname * Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–19 ...

both became noted artists. The Crane family moved from Liverpool to

Torquay Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paignt ...

in 1845. Lucy then went to school in London, and in 1859 the family left Torquay for London. From an early age, Crane showed considerable taste and skill in drawing and coloring. Circumstances, however, turned her attention to general educational work and she found employment as a

governess A governess is a woman employed as a private tutor, who teaches and trains a child or children in their home. A governess often lives in the same residence as the children she is teaching; depending on terms of their employment, they may or ma ...

. She became an accomplished musician, and was not only distinguished for her delicacy of touch as an executant, but also for the classical refinement of her taste and her knowledge of the earlier Italian and English.

Work

Crane worked on children's nursery rhymes and stories, and she translated the

Brothers Grimm The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob Grimm, Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Grimm, Wilhelm (1786–1859), were Germans, German academics who together collected and published folklore. The brothers are among the best-known storytellers of Oral tradit ...

's ''Household Stories'' collection from German to English in 1882. Interestingly in this work she mistranslated one of the stories. She mistook the German word "Geiß" (another word for goat) as Goose, so here we have the story of the Wolf and the seven Goslings! She also worked with her father, the senior Thomas, and with her brother

Walter Crane Walter Crane (15 August 184514 March 1915) was an English artist and book illustrator. He is considered to be the most influential, and among the most prolific, children's book creators of his generation and, along with Randolph Caldecott and Ka ...

on a number of projects. She wrote original verses for rhymes such as ''How Jessie was Lost,'' ''The Adventures of Puffy,'' ''Annie and Jack in London'' for Walter's coloured toy-books, some of which were published in Argosy Magazine. The selection and arrangement of the accompaniments to the nursery songs in the ''Baby's Opera'' and ''Baby's Bouquet'' were also by her. In the last few years of her life, Crane delivered lectures in London on

. Some of her views of art were

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

, and influenced by

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English polymath a writer, lecturer, art historian, art critic, draughtsman and philanthropist of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as art, architecture, Critique of politic ...

and

Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian, and philosopher. Known as the "Sage writing, sage of Chelsea, London, Chelsea", his writings strongly influenced the intellectual and artistic culture of the V ...

. Six of her lectures were published as ''Art and the Formation of Taste'' posthumously in 1888 by

Macmillan Publishers Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd in the United Kingdom and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC in the United States) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be on ...

. She died on 31 March 1882, at the house of a friend at Bolton le Moors.

Bibliography

* ''

Rumpelstiltskin "Rumpelstiltskin" ( ; ) is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm in the 1812 edition of ''Children's and Household Tales''. The story is about an imp who spins straw into gold in exchange for a woman's firstborn child. Plot I ...

: A German Folk Tale from the Brothers Grimm'' (1971), translated by Lucy Crane (Scott, Foresman, 1970) (Illustrated by

Kinuko Y. Craft Kinuko Yamabe Craft (born January 3, 1940) is a Japanese-born American painter, illustrator and fantasy artist. Biography Kinuko Yamabe Craft was born in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan on January 3, 1940. She graduated with a Bachelor of ...

)

References

External links

*
The Project Gutenberg EBook of Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm, by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm; translated by Lucy Crane.
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Crane, Lucy 1842 births 1882 deaths English art critics 19th-century English non-fiction writers English women non-fiction writers British women art critics 19th-century English women writers 19th-century English journalists English women journalists Artists from Liverpool