Lucy Crane (1842 - 1882)

RA Collection: People and Organisations

Writer, art critic and translator. Daughter of the portrait and miniature painter Thomas Crane (1808–1859) and brother of the artist and book-illustrator, Walter Crane (1845- 1915). She worked on children’s nursery rhymes and stories, and translated the Brothers Grimm’s “Household Stories” collection from German to English in 1882. She worked with her father and brother 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 Crane’s coloured toy-books. The selection and arrangement of the accompaniments to the nursery songs in the ‘Baby’s Opera’ and ‘Baby’s Bouquet’ are also due to her. In the last few years of her life, Lucy Crane delivered lectures in London on fine art.