Children playing

Kate Greenaway’s (1846-1901) Children Playing shows flat blocks of colour and clear outlines, as well as a flatness of space, despite the use of a busy background. Greenaway was a book illustrator, whose subjects of children in old-fashioned clothes and stylised manners reflected a dream-like world of childhood. Part of Greenaway’s appeal was that she showed a romanticised view of rural life in an industrial age. The children here symbolise this pure, romanticised life through playing and picking flowers, ignoring the bustle of houses beyond the wall directly behind them.

Greenaway began her career designing for the growing holiday card market, producing popular Christmas and Valentine's cards. In 1879, wood-block engraver and printer, Edmund Evans, printed her first children’s book, Under the Window, which became an instant best-seller and established her reputation. This work comes from that book. While Te Papa does not currently hold a copy of it in its collection, you can see another version of the image in one of her 'painting books' here.