![]() ![]() Max Ernst and Alice Alice in 1941 by Max Ernst, 1941, via MoMA, New York Though it’s believed that he and Lewis Carroll had a good relationship, Tenniel refused when Carroll asked him to illustrate another creative project, saying, “It is a curious fact that with Looking-Glass the faculty of making drawings for book illustrations departed from me, and I have done nothing in that direction since.” Many published editions of Alice in Wonderland today still show Tenniel’s original drawings. After he finished Alice’s sequel, though, Tenniel lost his passion for book illustration and largely returned to political cartoons and other forms of artistic expression throughout his life. These illustrations were engraved onto wooden blocks by the Dalziel Brothers, a famous wood engraving business in Victorian London, and then electrotyping was used to print the books. Tenniel created 92 drawings for Carroll’s novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (1871). Many of Tenniel’s artistic interpretations of the characters and scenes in Wonderland had an equally lasting impact on public perception of the story as the text of the novel itself. One of the reasons Carroll’s work has been interpreted in so many different ways over the years is because the text is relatively light in the description. Carroll was familiar with Tenniel’s work as a political cartoonist, and the two engaged in a lengthy discussion about the illustrations before Tenniel got to work. Carroll had many drawings accompanying his original manuscript, but the publisher suggested he hire a professional for the first edition of the novel. Instead of Lewis Carroll himself, the first official illustrator of the Alice books was an English illustrator and political cartoonist John Tenniel. The First Edition Artwork by John Tenniel Proof for Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There by John Tenniel, engraved by Dalziel Brothers, 1871, via the Victoria and Albert Museum, London In the years to come, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland went through many different editions and art styles, all of which cast different meanings on the Victorian children’s novel. Though this was never confirmed by Alice or the Liddell family, it understandably cast a shadow over Carroll’s original work and his drawings faded into the background, mostly seen by historians and collectors of rare books. Even darker, there has been a suggestion that Carroll harbored an inappropriate sexual obsession with Alice Liddell. Many biographers have suggested, unsurprisingly, that the Alice in the stories was inspired by the real-life Alice Liddell, something Carroll always denied. There has always been a fair amount of controversy surrounding Carroll and his original manuscript and intentions with the story. The manuscript, along with Carroll’s original drawings of his whimsical fantasy world, stayed in Alice’s possession until her husband’s death in 1928, when she was forced to sell it for financial reasons. Later, Carroll wrote the story down and illustrated his own manuscript called Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, which he gave as a Christmas gift to Alice Liddell. According to Carroll and the Liddell family, he told the story to their three daughters Lorina, Edith, and Alice as a way to pass the time. Lewis Carroll, born Charles Lutwidge Dawson, first came up with the story in 1862 while on a river trip with his friends, the Liddell family. The first person to illustrate the Alice stories was the author himself. Lewis Carroll’s Own Illustrations Illustration from Alice’s Adventures Under Ground by Lewis Carroll, 1862-4, via The British Library ![]()
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