There is a great deal of critical influences which John Tenniel brought to the field of illustration and to explore this, one must look into his work and his life to acknowledge how this impacted on Illustration and society in general.
Sir John Tenniel was an English Illustrator in the nineteenth century and famous for his book and Punch magazine illustrations towards the end of the century. Tenniel’s most credited illustrations were those featured in Lewis Carroll’s: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865), now known simply as Alice in Wonderland. John Tenniel was a secluded person and kept himself from society the majority of his life, Tenniel was also mysterious as Engen (1991) suggests he was “an elusive, enigmatic and thoroughly private
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Carroll wanted the fantasy story to be filled with ink drawings so he could present it to his younger friend who was called Alice Liddell, who coincidentally inspired the story (Engen, 1991). Tenniel’s task of illustrating the book was however regarded as “difficult” (Engen, 1991), although the illustrations themselves have been suggested to be Tenniel’s “greatest illustrations” (Engen, 1991). Despite that, there are slight differences in Tenniel’s styles from Punch to the styles he used in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. For example, Tenniel’s Punch magazine illustrations had a tendency to be very dark in shading and were a great deal more detailed. Although, his Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland illustrations were a good deal more reserved from shading and were not as detailed, nevertheless a whole lot more innocent as intended for the target audience of the …show more content…
The first edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which was printed in 1863. Carroll was very satisfied with his finished product, but not long had passed before he was traumatised by Tenniel’s letter in mid-July of the same year where he expressed his complete dissatisfaction with the printing of the pictures (Engen, 1991). Tenniel was a man of hard work and seeing his illustrations in their lowest quality after years of drawing must have caused a few tensions between himself and Carroll. Nevertheless, Carroll paid a fortune to have the books reprinted and after all the mistakes were corrected Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland became an enormous hit and made Carroll £200, which is the equivalent of approximately £22,921.34 in the present day according to the Bank of England’s inflation calculator, in just two-years after the publication (Engen, 1991). The book is so famous that many film adaptations have been made since film was invented the same
Of course there is no sure way to prove that Carroll did not intend any deeper meaning into the story, after all, he was a mathematician and a man of great knowledge of children (19th Century Literature Criticism 105), but lets take a look at the most obvious fact – the time, place and audience of the original story of Alice in Wonderland. Here are the words of Lewis Carroll as he recalls that day: Full many a year has slipped away, since that “golden afternoon” that gave thee birth, but I can call it up almost as clearly as if it were yesterday – the cloudless blue above, the watery mirror below, the boat drifting idly on its way, the tinkle of the drops that fell from the oars, as they waved so sleepily to and fro, and (the one bright gleam of life in all the slumberous scene) the three eager faces, hungry for news of fairyland, and who would not he say ‘nay’ to: from whose lips ‘Tell us a story, please,’ had all the stern immutability of Fate!
As I mentioned earlier, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known by his pseudonym Lewis Carroll, beside being an English author was a mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer . Carrol created the character of Alice to entertain a daughter of his good friend Dean of Christ Church, little girl named Alice Liddell. The story was first published in 1865.
Carroll’s work seems to have several different interpretations that readers can come up with that I can count now. Some of them includes that the reader has to try to connect the short stories from the images based on the specific objects, view the objects as pieces of evidence as to solve the puzzle or the case of the lizard queen, or just not even create or put things together but perceive the images as they are.
Overall, Dodgson’s life and his unique interests, was what inspired him in his writing of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Drawing inspiration from everything around him, especially the things he appreciated eminently, creating one of the most famous and influential books of all time, that is still popular today, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
It appears to me that pictures have been over-valued; held up by a blind admiration as ideal things, and almost as standards by which nature is to be judged rather than the reverse; and this false estimate has been sanctioned by the extravagant epithets that have been applied to painters, and "the divine," "the inspired," and so forth. Yet in reality, what are the most sublime productions of the pencil but selections of some of the forms of nature, and copies of a few of her evanescent effects, and this is the result, not of inspiration, but of long and patient study, under the instruction of much good sense…
Margret Rey and husband H.A. Rey are well known for their writing and illustrating the Curious George books. This paper is going to look at the way H. A. and Margret Rey and Beatrix Potter as authors and illustrators use images to express their feelings through these characters. H. A. and Margret Rey's Opposites, and Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit will be compared and contrasted.
...dgson Collingwood that lines from Alice in Wonderland were oftentimes recited in newspapers. Lewis Carroll’s ability to accomplish such a feat was by result of his family and the time period from which he resided, which are components that comprised Lewis Carroll’s disposition.
Most people know the name Lewis Carroll, and even more know about the taleof a little girl who fell down a rabbit hole straight into the adventure of a lifetime. But not many people know the name Charles Dodgson, the man behind the pseudonym and the one who constructed this wonderland from a summer time boat ride in 1862. Originally written for three friends, the Liddell sisters, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has inspired philosophers, artists, writers, theologians, and not to mention the general public. The culture in which this piece of art was written has shaped Alice’s dream-like journey from the first false step into an almost never ending fall to the last storm of cards. Dodgson’s enchanting work illustrates mankind’s childlike spirit that 1880s English society tried so hard to ignore.
Alice Liddell would recall this event as “that golden afternoon,” for during the trip Carroll began the outlines of the story that would become Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.5 Alice encouraged Carroll to write the story down, which he eventually did, giving Alice a handcrafted copy. Carroll also showed the story to friends and was encouraged to seek publication, which he finally accomplished with the now familiar illustrations by Sir John Tiennel (Figs. 2, 3, and 21). The book was published in 1865, three years after its initiation during an afternoon of boating .
Lewis Carroll's Wonderland is a queer little universe where a not so ordinary girl is faced with the contradicting nature of the fantastic creatures who live there. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a child's struggle to survive in the condescending world of adults. The conflict between child and adult gives direction to Alice's adventures and controls all the outstanding features of the work- Alice's character, her relationship with other characters, and the dialogue. " Alice in Wonderland is on one hand so nonsensical that children sometimes feel ashamed to have been interested in anything so silly (Masslich 107)."
Anthony Browne, an illustrator for the 1988 edition of Alice in Wonderland, believes Carroll may have not have been mindful of the connotations in his own story. "People interpret books in a logical way as they do dreams. They want it to have meaning." "In a way, it does not matter," says Browne. "I don't think Carroll wrote Alice in Wonderland to be interpreted. He wrote it to entertain."
The book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was inspired by a little girl named Alice who Carroll would spend many hours with telling stories (Bio.com, Lewis Carroll). When the book was released in 1865 it gained popularity over time and soon Carroll wrote Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland soon became the most popular children's book in the world (Bio.com, Lewis Carroll).
In such a cherished children’s book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, written in 1865, has caused great commotion in political and social satire. It slowly but surely grew into one of the most adored publications in the Victorian era, expanding into today’s modern age. Lewis Carroll was the pen name utilized by Charles L. Dodgson and has forth created a sequel named Through the Looking Glass, And What Alice Found There composed first in 1871. In short, the text of the story presented with a feminist approach, a corrupt judicial system of Victorian England, the caucus race, and the absence of a childhood, the evolution of species, and Marxism.
One of the main purposes for writing Alice in Wonderland was not only to show the difficulties of communication between children and adults. In this story, almost every adult Alice talked to did not understand her. At times she messed up what they were saying completely as well, which many times stick true to real life circumstances. This book shows that kids and adults are on completely separate pages on an everlasting story. Carroll points out that sometimes children, like Alice, have a hard time dealing with the transition from childhood to adulthood, 'growing up.' Alice in Wonderland is just a complicated way of showing this fact. Lewis Carroll's ways with words is confusing, entertaining, serious, and highly unique all at the same time. And it's safe to say that it would be difficult to replicate such and imaginative technique ever again (Long 72).
Alice in Wonderland belongs to the nonsense genre, and even if most of what happens to Alice is quite illogical, the main character is not. “The Alice books are, above all, about growing up” (Kincaid, page 93); indeed, Alice starts her journey as a scared little girl, however, at the end of what we discover to be just a dream, she has entered the adolescence phase with a new way to approach the mentally exhausting and queer Wonderland. It is important to consider the whole story when analyzing the growth of the character, because the meaning of an event or a sentence is more likely to mean what it truly looks like rather than an explanation regarding subconscious and Freudian interpretations. Morton states “that the books should possess any unity of purpose seems on the surface unlikely” (Morton, page 509), but it’s better to consider the disconnected narrative and the main character separately, since the girl doesn’t belong to Wonderland, which is, as Morton says, with no intrinsic unity. Whereas, there are a few key turning points where it is possible to see how Alice is changing, something that is visible throughout her journey. Carroll wants to tell the story of a girl who has to become braver in order to contend with challenges like the pool made by her own tears, or assertive characters, like the Queen.