Walter Crane, R.W.S. (1845-1915)

This atmospheric landscape was painted by the artist and illustrator, Walter Crane, in 1913, two years before his death. Crane was greatly influenced by Burne-Jones’s romantic pictures from the 1860s, writing in his Reminiscences that they revealed 'a magic world of romance and pictured poetry... - a twilight world of dark mysterious woodlands, haunted streams, meads of deep green starred with burning flowers, veiled in a dim and mystic light' (W. Crane, An Artist's Reminiscences, London, 1907, p. 84). Crane’s predilection for enigmatic landscapes is evident in the present lot; the moon rises to illuminate the golden haystacks, set below an inky night sky.