Thomas crane biography

​CRANE, THOMAS (1808–1859), artist, was born in 1808 in Chester, where the family had been long resident.

His great-grandfather was appointed house-surgeon to the Chester Infirmary when that institution was built about the middle of the last century, and his grandfather, who was a lieutenant in the royal navy, was a native of that city.

The father of Crane was a bookseller in Chester.

Thomas crane biography

He was a man of considerable attainment. Young Crane early evinced a great predilection for the study of art, and fortunately, through the liberality of Edward Taylor of Manchester, in 1824 was enabled to go up to London and enter the schools of the Royal Academy, gaining in the following year the gold medal for his drawing from the antique.

He seems, however, in 1825 to have returned to Chester and started on his professional career, for we find from his memorandum-book that he was hard at work there painting small miniat