With the Exeter’s Fine Art Collection: Funded with Thanks exhibition going back on display in September, why not begin by delving into some of the fine art that we have in our collection. The Victorian artist Kate Greenaway (1846 – 1901) has various pieces of work featured in RAMM’s fine art collection. Best known for her children’s book illustrations, often depicting children in settings with a certain whimsy.
She attended night classes at the age of 12 at Finsbury School, a branch of the South Kensington School of Art. Open only to women, these classes taught drawing, porcelain painting, lithography and wood engraving. She went on to study at Royal Female School of Art in 1864 where she was able to examine the human figure for the first time. Within Victorian society women weren’t permitted to draw naked figures, so she learnt from plaster casts and models dressed in historical and ornamental costume. She became a student of the painter, designer and craftsman Sir Edward Poynter (1836 -1919) at the Slade School of Art where she was encouraged to be creative and expressive.
Greenaway’s training and career coincided with the growing popularity of card market and in 1871 she was employed by one of the main Victorian card makers, Marcus Ward & Co where he designs became popular. Her idyllic scenes with children dressed in popular 18th century dress to capture the Victorian imagination in a nostalgic depiction of settings and people.
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