Kate Greenaway - Woman fleeing with child

signed with initials 'KG' (lower left) and with inscription '1902 catalogue ... No 123' (on the reverse)
pencil and watercolour on paper
11 5/8 x 10 in.

Greenaway grew up in London and as a child was a keen reader of both fairy tales and Shakespeare. She rose to the forefront of the field of illustrators through work such as Kate Greenaway's Birthday Book for Children (1880) and exhibited at the Royal Academy for the first time in 1877. In 1891 her work was celebrated in an exhibition at the Fine Art Society in London.

The present watercolour was exhibited at the gallery of Frederick Keppel & Co. in November 1902. A review in the New York Times commented upon the fact that 'Kate Greenaway's work has that quality of simplicity which is so misleading in pictorial as well as in literary and dramatic art. The student who sees it usually thinks that nothing could be easier than to produce things like it until he tries to do so. Afterwards he discovers that this captivating simplicity is the result of an absolutely sure touch only to be attained after much labor and a faultlessly delicate eye for color, which usually cannot be attained at all. Kate Greenaway enjoyed beautiful color as Fra Angelico enjoyed it, and in their way her productions are as naïvely delightful as those of the monk of Fiesole' (The New York Times, 19 November 1902, p. 7).


http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&pos=9&intObjectID=5318346&sid=0545c7f3-3455-4ae9-8651-dfe2783d1493