Thomas Crane

Thomas Crane (1808–1859) was an English artist and portrait painter.

Life Crane was born at Chester in 1808 to Thomas Crane, a bookseller. The young Thomas was in a family of six sisters and three sons. In 1824, having shown early a taste for art, he went to London, and joined the Royal Academy schools. There he remained for two years, receiving, in 1825, a medal for drawings from the antique.

His obituary in the Art Journal described him as "a portrait-painter of considerable provincial celebrity, and not altogether unknown and unappreciated in London." Crane's second son, Walter Crane, was one of the most prolific and influential illustrators of his time.

Works Crane was, according to his obituary, "most successful in portraits of females and children, both in oil and water-colours; his treatment of such subjects being so elegant and so full of fancy as almost to make them ideal works, yet without compromising their likeness."

He illustrated several books, including a nursery rhyme called The History of Mr Pig and Miss Crane, published in 1836.

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