At Home, A Portrait. 1872. Tempera on Wood. 28 x 16 inches (71.1 x 40.6 cm). Collection of Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds Museums and Galleries, Leeds. Reproduced via Art UK for purposes of non-commercial academic research.
Crane exhibited this picture at the Royal Academy in 1872, no.772, the second and final work he would exhibit at that institution. In his reminiscences Crane recorded how during their honeymoon in Italy, when they were staying at the Via San Nicolo Tolentino in Rome, he completed a portrait of his wife Mary Frances Crane: "I had painted my wife in our room with some fanciful decorative addition in this way as a background" (132). Paul Konoday feels this work was influenced by Pre-Raphaelitism, and saw it as "an exquisite example of his pre-Raphaelite style, representing a lady dressed in brown, gracefully leaning against a mantelboard, and holding an open book. A beautifully painted piece of old Italian tapestry fills the greater part of the background" (93). Greg Smith and Sarah Hyde point out which items are likely to have been part of the "fanciful addition": "As with many of Crane's portraits much of the interest lies in the setting. The tiles, a common feature in the Toy Books, are from the artist's imagination as is the hunting tapestry which features Mary dressed as Diana, and behind her a Cupid firing an arrow at a crane. The fireplace and the mirror were probably part of the furnishings of the Roman apartment which they rented and the vase, inscribed Maria, was of a type which Crane admired" (109). The eclecticism of the objects portrayed, as well as the simple "Aesthetic" dress Mary wears and the Japanese fan held in her right hand, make this a prime example of early Aesthetic Movement portraiture.
Morna O'Neill usefully explains how Crane explored the tension between decoration and narrative in this "art for art's sake" painting of his wife reading:
Mary Frances Crane leans on the mantelpiece, her arm gently resting beside an Italian-style vase labelled "Maria"; the vase contains a myrtle branch, an emblem of Venus. The interior is artfully composed, and every surface appears, decorated or designed, from the quilting of her costume to the gold-embroidered saddle blanket in the hunting scene on the wall. Furthermore, by using tempera, Crane was playing tribute to Italian Renaissance masters. The painting is both domestic and decorative: an interior scene, not unlike Rossetti's Blue Bower, showing a beloved woman surrounded by beautiful objects. Informed by Crane's attentive reading of Pater and his affiliation with Aesthetic movement artists, At Home represents an early meditation on the relationship between contemporary art and the art-historical tradition, between modern life and mythology. These preoccupations would endure throughout his career. For this portrait, Crane posed his wife in front of a tapestry abounding in narrative detail. The decorative background enriches and complicates the painting's significance. The motif is hunting in its most expansive sense: pursuit and conquest in a romantic or spiritual quest. The imagery is an amalgam of pagan and Christian symbolism. [29]
Crane's wife, Mary Frances Andrews, was the second daughter of Thomas Andrews of Wynchlow Hall, Hempstead, Essex. Crane had first met her during the winter of 1868-69 when she was staying with her family at a house in Tavistock Square in London. She subsequently left with her brothers and sisters on a travelling expedition and she and Crane did not meet again until 1870. They fell in love and were married on September 6, 1871 at All Souls, Langham Place, in London. Three days later they sailed away on their honeymoon. They spent most of their time in Italy until their return to London in late May 1873. Mary was to serve as a model for many of Crane's works over the years, including the figure in A Herald of Spring, painted in Rome in April 1872.
Contemporary Reviews of the Painting
When the picture was shown at the Royal Academy it was not extensively reviewed. F. G. Stephens in the Athenaeum barely mentioned it, although when he did, he admired its colour: "At Home, a portrait, a girl standing with a book; a capital piece of colour and extremely bright" (661).
Bibliography
Crane, Walter. An Artist's Reminiscences. London: Methuen & Co., 1907. 132-33.
At Home, A Portrait. Art UK. Web. 19 November 2025.
Konody, Paul G. The Art of Walter Crane. London: George Bell & Sons, 1902. 93.
O'Neill Morna. Walter Crane. The Arts and Crafts, Painting, and Politics, 1875-1890. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2010. 27-29.
Smith, Greg and Sarah Hyde. Walter Crane 1845-1915. Artist, Designer and Socialist. London: Lund Humphries, 1989.
Spencer, Isobel. Walter Crane. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co. Inc., 197., 70.
Stephens, Frederic George. "Fine Arts. The Royal Academy." The Athenaeum No. 2326 (25 May 1872): 657-62.
Created 19 November 2025