Kate Greenaway was one of the most popular figures in British book illustration in the latter part of the 19th Century, rivalled only by Walter Crane and Randolph Caldecott.
Early in her career she worked for Thomas Crane, brother of Walter, and later was romantically associated with John Ruskin.

Her subjects were usually young children, flowers, and sketchily-finished quaint landscapes. Her children are dressed in her own versions of Georgian and Regency fashions, dresses which were adapted by Liberty of London as designs for children's clothes.