Walter Crane - Eight Peacocks in the Air 1910

Eight peacocks in the air, I wonder how they all got there? 

You don’t know, and I don’t care. 

Seven lobsters in a dish, as fresh as any heart could wish. 

Six joiners in Joiners’ Hall, working with their tools and all. 

Five beetles against the wall, close to an old woman’s apple-stall. 

Four puppies with our dog Ball, who daily for their breakfast call. 

Three monkeys tied to a log. 

Two puddings’ ends, would choke a dog, 

Or a gaping, wide-mouthed, waddling frog.  

From : A Gaping-Wide-Mouth Waddling Frog, illustrated by Walter Crane

Walter Crane (1845-1915) est un artiste majeur anglais. Il fut également théoricien, écrivain, et socialiste convaincu. C'est l'un des principaux acteurs du mouvement artistique des Arts & Crafts. D'abord connu comme illustrateur, puis fervent promoteur des arts décoratifs, il a exercé son art dans de nombreux domaines: l'illustration, la peinture, la céramique, le papier peint, la tapisserie, etc.

Walter Crane (1845-1915) was an English artist and book illustrator. He is considered to be the most influential, and among the most prolific, children’s book creator of his generation and, along with Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenaway, one of the strongest contributors to the child's nursery motif that the genre of English children's illustrated literature would exhibit in its developmental stages in the latter 19th century.