The Cock, The Ass, and the Lion, The Ass and the LapDog 1908

This color print by Walter Crane illustrates two fables with gentle lines and a limted palette. It’s all about the story here, told both in words and images, like the work of a skilled graphic designer. Crane uses a muted range of colors—mostly creams and light blues—that gives the piece a soft, almost dreamlike quality. The textures are created by the varying line weights and the hatching, you can see them if you look close. Look at the way the figures are outlined, almost like stained glass. It gives the image a sense of structure, but also a bit of flatness. For me, the emphasis on storytelling and the delicate balance between text and image brings to mind the work of William Blake, who also combined image and text in his illuminated books. Like Blake, Crane seems interested in exploring moral and philosophical themes through the imaginative possibilities of visual art, but the style is pure Walter Crane, who found in narrative art an enduring source of inspiration.