Friday, August 3, 2007

Show & Tell Friday...

Kelli from There is no place like home

is hosting Show & Tell Friday's. I am always up to share...so here it goes. Stop by her blog to join in the fun!!!
I am sharing about one of my favorite illustrators of all time.This goes along side with my love for the Victorian Era....
Kate Greenaway (1846-1901) was one of the most popular British book illustrators of the Victorian era. A contemporary of Randolph Caldecott and Walter Crane, she attracted a wide audience in the United States and England, and many of her books were printed in German and French editions as well. One of Greenaway's early successes was Mother Goose, or the Old Nursery Rhymes, first published in 1881. Her enchanting watercolors of children wearing clothing from an earlier age and frolicking in the countryside evoked the Victorian reader's sense of nostalgia for the rural life of eighteenth-century England and echoed Greenaway's own longing to retreat from the industrial, urban setting of her native London.

The essence of Victorian childhood is exhibited in the idealized children of Greenaway’s work. Her dreamy little figures seem almost melancholy as they prance through the English countryside unaware of time or place. Their outfits of frilly smocks, mob caps and sunbonnets seem Regency in appearance but are none-the-less the figments of Miss Greenaway’s girlish imagination. They are an outcome of her unwillingness to leave childhood behind.



This is my recent find. This is a lovely example of Kate Greenway's style, which I just adore. This piece is in perfect condition , made of porcelin or bisque, dating back to the 1800's. The back of her is open for toothpicks or well...I would put flowers in it. I am just in love with this little piece.

4 comments:

  1. From the time I can remember I always loved Mother Goose, as did my children:-) Like you, I loved the way the author would dress up the characters in Victorian style clothes! That figurine you found is just precious!!! xo

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  2. Absolutely beautiful!!
    penofjen.blogspot.com
    mcbenningschool.blogspot.com

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  3. Oh, what a pretty little figurine!!!

    Kelli

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