Walter Crane. Goose that lays golden eggs. Cleveland. 1890.
“Call me not ‘fool’ till heaven hath sent me fortune”
Jaques in William Shakespeare's As You Like It, II.7.xix.
Ohio's first skyscraper was built in 1899, the red sandstone, ten storey Society for Savings Bank on Cleveland's Public Square. The English book illustrator, and painter, Walter Crane was hired to paint two scenes on the Goose that lays golden eggs. Crane was part of the English Arts and Crafts movement, along with William Morris (both were socialists).
The first scene the master is leading a motley bunch, with a professional fool. A girl carries a platter of golden eggs. They pass a tavern with a sign reading, “When Adam and Eve in Paradise”. A bare footed Eve is about to press a spade. Now, a female carries all the egg cells with her, and each one grows and is then laid. The master is greedy, and wants all the eggs now. In the second scene the goose has been killed with a knife, and a regular egg has broken upon the ground revealing the yolk. Another tavern sign reads, “A bird in thy hand is worth two in the bush”. The second mural with the dead goose's Shakespeare inscription is, “Will Fortune never come with both hands full”. King Henry in Henry IV, Part 2, IV.4.ciii.
Later, both Cleveland Trust, and Union Trust decorated their main lobbies with murals. Several government buildings also commissioned murals, and Roosevelt's New Deal furthered this public art.
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