Kate Greenaway

Born in London on March 17, 1846, Kate Greenaway grew up in a family connected to the printing trade and trained at several art schools, including the South Kensington School of Art and the Slade. She began her career designing cards and illustrations, developing the gentle, finely detailed style that would make her famous.

Her breakthrough came with Under the Window in 1879, a hugely successful children's book that established her as a leading illustrator of the period. Working closely with the printer and engraver Edmund Evans, she created a series of much-loved books filled with gardens, nursery scenes, and children dressed in her signature Regency- and folk-inspired costumes.

Greenaway died in 1901, but her work remained deeply influential. She is remembered not only as a writer and illustrator of charming books, but as an artist who gave childhood a distinct visual world—tender, playful, and immediately recognizable.