~My Favorite Illustrators~ - Kate Greenaway (Biography)

Kate Greenaway's quote

Kate Greenaway at age 16

The Kitchen in Rolston - watercolor
A Kitchen in Ralston, watercolor
by Kate Greenaway
at age 17 or 18.

Happy Childhood Surrounded by Nature

Kate Greenaway was born on March 17, 1846, at Cavendish Street in London. Having her father being a well-known engraver and an architect, Kate begun to show her artistic talent in her early teens. She was raised in a loving family environment and her unique illustration was born from her memories of her happy childhood. Her artwork, illustrations, watercolors and her poems, she had left behind over a hundred years ago gave us valuable information regarding children's life in Victorian time.

Kate spent her summers in Ralston, Nottinghamshire, an English countryside, where her mother moved for the change of air for health. Everyday Kate played in the green and sunny world. Such a happy and carefree childhood would later influence Kate's artwork. The girls Kate drew in her pictures might have been the reflections of herself as a child. Later in her life, Kate wrote about her childhood in Ralston, "Fryer Garden was the most wonderful place amongst all the gardens I knew. My life there was like a paradise." The old English countryside must have been a beautiful place on earth for the innocent, wide-eyed little child as Kate was. From such childhood memories, she repeatedly depicted children with flowers and birds. Kate Greenaway was also fond of dressing the children she created in a quaint fashion reminiscent of the Empire style of the early 19th Century.

Kate Greenaway at age 34

From "Kate Greenaway's
Nursery Rhymes"

First Illustration at Age 28

At age 12, Kate was given an education in art to develop her talent. By age 17 or 18, Kate had received several awards and left some remarkable artwork such as A Kitchen in Ralston (above left), a watercolor, Picnic, a drawing by ink, and painted tiles, etc. Kate worked for the London branch of Marcus Ward and Co. from 1868 to 1878. In 1868, amazingly 25,000 of the first Valentine's Day card Kate illustrated were sold in a few weeks time.

In 1874, when she was 28, Kate illustrated a book called Fairy Gift, written by Katherine Knox. This was the first time Kate's name appeared on the title page of books she illustrated. Kate always wanted to draw and write poems as she pleased and did not wish to do a work she didn't like.

Under the Window

Kate's father was a friend of Edmund Evans, the color printer. When she showed her portfolio of drawings and poems to Evans, he immediately decided to publish them as a collection. In 1878, Kate published her first book, a picture book titled Under the Window. This book was an enormous and immediate success and made an epoch in children's books in the last third of the 19th Century. And her name became well known not only in England but in the rest of the Europe and to the United States.

Kate Greenaway passed away on November 6, 1901, surrounded by several of her friends at her bed side. She was 55 years old.

From "Marigold Garden"

Many distinguished children's picture books were published in the latter half of the 19th Century. For example, Kate Greenaway's Toy-books, W.S. Gilbert's Bab Ballads, Edward Lear's Nonsense Songs and Stories, Christina Rosseti's Sing-Song, Robert Stevenson's Child's Garden of Verses, and Lewis Carrol's Alice in the Wonderland, etc.

Resource:
Under The Window - Kate Greenaway, the poet of illustration from the gentler era; Shinshokan, Tokyo, 1976.
Kate Greenaway Stickers & Seals; Dover Publications, Inc., 1988

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Established 11/22/1999. Last Updated 8/5/2001.