sketcher and illustrator, was born on 9 May 1895. After attending Presbyterian Ladies’ College, she went on to study at the University of Sydney. She graduated BA in 1917 and, with the financial support of her father, then studied at Julian Ashton’s School of Art under Albert Collins . At university Crane had begun to sketch and draw caricatures, many of which appeared in Hermes , the Sydney University Union magazine. For example, Oval Oddities: Alumnae Versus Alumnos (vol 22, no. 2, August 1916, 61) shows pandemonium on a hockey field when male and female students play each other. Women’s emancipation, particularly in academic areas, was a concern and she often used her artistic abilities to comment on this.
Little is known of Crane’s sojourn at Ashton’s although William Moore mentions her as one of the younger skilled brigade, along with Grace Crowley and Myra Cocks . From this time until 1921 her work was hung annually in the Society of Artists’ exhibitions held in the Education Department’s Art Gallery. In her second year of exhibiting the Society’s catalogue reproduced several of her works, all evidently narrative illustrations for books.
Very quickly Crane became a book illustrator (beginning with Zora Cross’s The City of Riddle-Me-Ree , Sydney 1918) as well as a designer of Christmas cards and bookplates (example of the latter in Jeremy De Rozario Bookplate Collection, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia, donated 2000). Sir William Dixson’s library included N. J. Cocks, The Betty Songs , Sydney, W.Geo. Smith, n.d. [1919?] (91/834), poems about WWI such as I. The Call ('Belgium in her trouble’), II. The Riding of the King’s Men , XXIII. Betty Receives a Cable Message “Wounded” (ill.). Many of her drawings emanate from a world of fantasy, although the reality of war is also observable. There is little doubt that Crane defined herself as an artist and set out to prove that she could survive in that industry. Indeed, she wanted to show her family that she could earn a living from her chosen career.
Crane made little distinction between high art and decorative images and her highly stylised quality work became relatively well known. In 1920 she exhibited several watercolours with the Society of Artists and was hung with the 'male greats’. One of these, The Tired Dancer , was bought by the National Art Gallery of NSW; a critic in the Sydney Mail (22 September 1920) wrote that the purchase 'well deserved that honour’. The Plain Princess , a very linear watercolour, was reproduced in The Society of Artists Pictures (special number of Art in Australia , 1920, plate 40). A year later the same Sydney Mail critic wrote about another work that 'Crane’s watercolours reveal conspicuous ability’.
Between 1922 and 1926 Crane, like many Australian artists, decided to further her career by travelling in Europe and studying in England. Etchings made in England include Jeune Homme Las [Weary young man] (1924, NGA). She sent works home for exhibition in Sydney during her absence. On her return to Australia in 1927, she married fellow artist Kenneth Macqueen and moved to Millmerran in rural Queensland. In 1930 she exhibited for the last time. Crane gave birth to a daughter, Mildred, in 1932 and a son, Revan, in 1935. She died in 1936.
- Writers:
- Eisenberg, Joseph
Kerr, Joan
Note: additional information: changes made according to entry on Kenneth Macqueen, ADB 15
dougbutler
- Date written:
- 1995
- Last updated:
- 2023
