The Vain Jackdaw
Date
1875
Level of description
Item
Creator
Crane, Walter (Mr): history
Walter Crane (15 August 1845-14 March 1915) was a prolific illustrator, designer and painter and part of the Arts and Crafts and Aesthetics Movements.
Involved in the Holland Park social scene and a close friend of William Morris, Crane joined the Social Democratic Federation in 1884 and the Fabian Society in 1885. A founding member of the Art Workers Guild and the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, he was president until 1893, and again from 1896 until 1912, following the death of William Morris.
In his autobiography (An Artists Reminiscences, p.164) he writes that as well as being on the advisory committee for the RSN, ‘along with William Morris, George Aitcheson […] and Fairfax Wade’ he contributed many designs 'for screens, panels, and other things, in which I introduced birds (notably peacocks), and other animals, and many of them are still worked I believe.' Although not visible as an attendee in the minutes for the Artists Committee of the school it is likely Crane advised in a more informal manner.
Scope and content
Walter Crane's design for a screen 'Vain Jackdaw' based on Alsop's Fables, labelled on the back as 'Peacock Screen', watercolour and body-colour (gouache) on paper.
This was the earliest design produced by Crane for the RSN and was completed in 1875. It is based on an Aesop Fable (from a collection of ancient Greek stories). The Vain Jackdaw sees the peacocks in the King's garden and wishes to be like them. The right hand panel shows the jackdaw attempting to make himself a peacock tail from discarded feathers. The peacocks see through the disguise and chase him away. The jackdaws also reject him, for leaving them. The moral is that fine feathers do not make a fine bird. It was a story that Crane later returned to with the publication of 'Baby's Own Alsop' in 1887 one of his children's books that helped define the genre in the late 19th century.
The three screens to the left show peacocks, peahens and a pomegranate tree. The pomegranate tree is flanked by two lily plants and two peahens. The fourth screen shows the jackdaw in a humbler bush with berries, he has dressed himself with four peacock feathers. Another jackdaw is handing him a fifth feather. The border along the bottom of all four screens is a stream with fish and a narrow stylised scalloped border underneath, which surrounds whole screen. The fish show many similarities to Crane's later 'Billow' wallpaper of 1879 for Jeffrey and Co.
The Lily was one of the favourite flowers of the Aesthetics Movement and the peacock one of its favourite animals. This design of all those Crane did for the Royal School of Art Needlework (later the Royal School of Needlework) is particularly evocative of the Aesthetics Movement.
Crane spoke at length in his 1903 lecture for the school about the ability of needlework to capture natural forms. He writes:
'If a peacock were our subject, and we desired to present the bird in all its glory, we should naturally choose the lustrous surface and sheeny quality of silk to work in, and in that material might approach as near to nature as perhaps it is possible to do in any art, since the natural beauty of the silk, by means of cunning stitches, is enhanced by the way in which the light falls upon its surface when worked; and in meeting that contingency regarding it as an essential condition of the work, and making the most of it—all the skill and resource of the worker, all the art and craft of the needle, may be exercised. Look at a peacock in his fresh plumage, as he may be studied any day in Kensington Gardens by the Serpentine, with the promise of a fine London spring morning. See him on the grassy slope, the tender green of the new springing grass leading up to, as the highest note of the harmony, the flashing gold and emerald of the tail coverts.
There are, perhaps, no other decorative methods which could reach the pitch of brilliancy in the rendering of such qualities of colour as is attainable in silk embroidery, and none can rival it in beauty of texture and surface, and therefore in fidelity to the character of plumage.'
Birds and peacocks in particular were a popular motif for Crane who used a crane as part of his own signature.
A screen to this design was displayed at the 1876 Philadelphia International Centennial Exhibition and is illustrated on p249 Volume II of The Masterpieces of the Centennial Exhibition 1876 written by Prof Walter Smith. Existent embroidered versions in private collections are worked in silk, a miniaturised design in the archives notes that it could be worked on silk 'sheetrip' in crewel this would cost £52 (not including materials). As prepared work including materials and a traced design, and started by the RSAN's embroiderers the price would be £13.3.6. Crewel usually refers to wool threads. The design for the Vain Jackdaw seems to have remained popular through the rest of the century and existing versions include those with a slightly altered design, such as one now in the Collection of Barrie and Deedee Wigmore stitched in wool on a cotton base fabric. (See Peck & Irish 'Candace Wheeler, The Art and Enterprise of American Design 1875-1900, The Metropolitan Museum of Art & Yale Press, 2002 )
This was the earliest design produced by Crane for the RSN and was completed in 1875. It is based on an Aesop Fable (from a collection of ancient Greek stories). The Vain Jackdaw sees the peacocks in the King's garden and wishes to be like them. The right hand panel shows the jackdaw attempting to make himself a peacock tail from discarded feathers. The peacocks see through the disguise and chase him away. The jackdaws also reject him, for leaving them. The moral is that fine feathers do not make a fine bird. It was a story that Crane later returned to with the publication of 'Baby's Own Alsop' in 1887 one of his children's books that helped define the genre in the late 19th century.
The three screens to the left show peacocks, peahens and a pomegranate tree. The pomegranate tree is flanked by two lily plants and two peahens. The fourth screen shows the jackdaw in a humbler bush with berries, he has dressed himself with four peacock feathers. Another jackdaw is handing him a fifth feather. The border along the bottom of all four screens is a stream with fish and a narrow stylised scalloped border underneath, which surrounds whole screen. The fish show many similarities to Crane's later 'Billow' wallpaper of 1879 for Jeffrey and Co.
The Lily was one of the favourite flowers of the Aesthetics Movement and the peacock one of its favourite animals. This design of all those Crane did for the Royal School of Art Needlework (later the Royal School of Needlework) is particularly evocative of the Aesthetics Movement.
Crane spoke at length in his 1903 lecture for the school about the ability of needlework to capture natural forms. He writes:
'If a peacock were our subject, and we desired to present the bird in all its glory, we should naturally choose the lustrous surface and sheeny quality of silk to work in, and in that material might approach as near to nature as perhaps it is possible to do in any art, since the natural beauty of the silk, by means of cunning stitches, is enhanced by the way in which the light falls upon its surface when worked; and in meeting that contingency regarding it as an essential condition of the work, and making the most of it—all the skill and resource of the worker, all the art and craft of the needle, may be exercised. Look at a peacock in his fresh plumage, as he may be studied any day in Kensington Gardens by the Serpentine, with the promise of a fine London spring morning. See him on the grassy slope, the tender green of the new springing grass leading up to, as the highest note of the harmony, the flashing gold and emerald of the tail coverts.
There are, perhaps, no other decorative methods which could reach the pitch of brilliancy in the rendering of such qualities of colour as is attainable in silk embroidery, and none can rival it in beauty of texture and surface, and therefore in fidelity to the character of plumage.'
Birds and peacocks in particular were a popular motif for Crane who used a crane as part of his own signature.
A screen to this design was displayed at the 1876 Philadelphia International Centennial Exhibition and is illustrated on p249 Volume II of The Masterpieces of the Centennial Exhibition 1876 written by Prof Walter Smith. Existent embroidered versions in private collections are worked in silk, a miniaturised design in the archives notes that it could be worked on silk 'sheetrip' in crewel this would cost £52 (not including materials). As prepared work including materials and a traced design, and started by the RSAN's embroiderers the price would be £13.3.6. Crewel usually refers to wool threads. The design for the Vain Jackdaw seems to have remained popular through the rest of the century and existing versions include those with a slightly altered design, such as one now in the Collection of Barrie and Deedee Wigmore stitched in wool on a cotton base fabric. (See Peck & Irish 'Candace Wheeler, The Art and Enterprise of American Design 1875-1900, The Metropolitan Museum of Art & Yale Press, 2002 )
Reference code
D6/21.a-d
© Royal School of Needlework