Runaway Success
Kate Greenaway’s Under the Window was a runaway success when it was first published in 1879. This success was largely due to Kate’s beautiful drawings and delicate words. She had a way of bringing childhood from the world around her onto paper. It is that enduring beauty and childlike nature that keeps this book as one of the classics of Children’s Literature. Her work has endured for many reasons but mostly because of her ability to “recapture in her art her ‘childish wonder’” (Lundin, 1994). Even after her death in 1901, her work continued to influence artists. This influence can still be seen in the familiar silhouette of the “Greenaway Vogue” that pops up even in modern times
The Greenaway Vogue
One of the most lasting effects of the book was not in the publishing industry, but in the fervor that came from the “Greenaway Vogue”- the image of the little girls in beautiful dresses and bonnets that Kate had so lovingly created. “The book soon spawned a host of imitations and a plethora of Greenaway styled clothing, ceramics, jewelry, wallpaper and needlework as more as the more familiar cards, calendars, and bookplates”(Lundin, 1995, p. 127). The commercial reception of the book and the various inspired items soon became the subject of many imitations. “imitations, piracies, and spin-offs document not only Greenaway’s popularity but the state of the marketplace”(Lundin, n.d.-b, p. 47). The influence of the Greenaway Vogue is seen in later artists and popular products such as Kewpes, Holly Hobbie, Precious Moments and even in Anne Geddes photographs, as she “invented the face of modern childhood that has dominated the media for over a century” (Danger, 2009, p. 311).
Ideal worlds and Poking Fun
Several factors contributed to Kate’s initial success with Under the Window. Her work primarily featured the joy of childhood. According to Anne Lundin, “her distinctive contribution was the fantastic landscape she created of English childhood, a juvenile Arcadia with contours shaped by childish play and parody of adult rituals” (Lundin, 1995, p. 146) In Under the Window give us a glimpse of the rural life of children in England in the late 1800s. Within the pages, Kate pokes fun at old women with cats, yount woman who wear old ladies’ hats, and children being generally rowdy. And these poems, “scrutinize the ways by which adult prescriptions may narrowly, and sometimes violently circumscribe the child’s world” (Danger, 2009, p. 324).
There are depictions of girls and boys at play, serving tea, and burying pets. It is, as Lundin states, a “’Book of days’ of childhood” where glimpse of children and life “create an idyllic village back in time, in an England that never was” (Lundin, n.d., p. 51). Sara Danger says of the work, it “is a landmark texts, not only for its innovative portraiture of children but also for the subversive ways that is speaks to the child’s changing role at the fin de siècle” (Danger, 2009, p. 311). Within the pages, the reader can get lost in the world of the children and imagine that world that never quite was, but still rings nostalgic. “The children who lived in Greenaway's stories and artwork were happy, well-loved and cared for, seemingly without a care in the world” (“Sweetness and Style: Kate Greenaway’s Children,” n.d.). This is part of its greatest appeal.
There are depictions of girls and boys at play, serving tea, and burying pets. It is, as Lundin states, a “’Book of days’ of childhood” where glimpse of children and life “create an idyllic village back in time, in an England that never was” (Lundin, n.d., p. 51). Sara Danger says of the work, it “is a landmark texts, not only for its innovative portraiture of children but also for the subversive ways that is speaks to the child’s changing role at the fin de siècle” (Danger, 2009, p. 311). Within the pages, the reader can get lost in the world of the children and imagine that world that never quite was, but still rings nostalgic. “The children who lived in Greenaway's stories and artwork were happy, well-loved and cared for, seemingly without a care in the world” (“Sweetness and Style: Kate Greenaway’s Children,” n.d.). This is part of its greatest appeal.
Contemporary Appeal
Today, Kate’s work is not as ubiquitous as it was in through the mid to late 1900s, but it her art still has appeal. “Kate Greenaway's illustrations for children's books have remained so popular the world over that her name has become synonymous with an English childhood. Her England is a world of childhood, where children dance in flowery meadows and characters from nursery rhymes find a life which is forever beautiful and innocent. The quaintly dressed children with their adult expressions were an overnight success in the 19th century and enjoy great popularity today.” (“Kate Greenaway,” n.d.).
Towards the end of her life, Kate would come to doubt her own work. Partially because of all of the imitations that had proliferated the market and her own waning popularity, but also partly because of her own suffering due to the breast cancer that had spread to her lungs. According to Helen Neighbors, The peak of her popularity was passed and she felt keenly the coolness of the public mind in regard to her work. She said in one of her letters ‘It is rather unhappy to feel that you have had your day’” (Neighbors, 1929, p. 97) However, her work does endure. “Greenaway’s books, which have remained in print during the twentieth century, stand as a lasting testimony of her ability to capture her ‘childish wonder’ for future generations”(Kamp, 2013). Neighbors again comments, “If she could have lived a few years longer into this twentieth century she would have seen children’s books and their illustrators coming to the foreground and would have found herself still loved by little children and her name revered as one of the great pioneers in the history of illustrating books for children”(Neighbors, 1929, p. 97).
Towards the end of her life, Kate would come to doubt her own work. Partially because of all of the imitations that had proliferated the market and her own waning popularity, but also partly because of her own suffering due to the breast cancer that had spread to her lungs. According to Helen Neighbors, The peak of her popularity was passed and she felt keenly the coolness of the public mind in regard to her work. She said in one of her letters ‘It is rather unhappy to feel that you have had your day’” (Neighbors, 1929, p. 97) However, her work does endure. “Greenaway’s books, which have remained in print during the twentieth century, stand as a lasting testimony of her ability to capture her ‘childish wonder’ for future generations”(Kamp, 2013). Neighbors again comments, “If she could have lived a few years longer into this twentieth century she would have seen children’s books and their illustrators coming to the foreground and would have found herself still loved by little children and her name revered as one of the great pioneers in the history of illustrating books for children”(Neighbors, 1929, p. 97).