Tenniel's Alice and Other Alices

 Through my interest in Sir John Tenniel, I copied a number of his illustrations to the Alice books over the years. This mutated into a personal challenge to copy all 92 of his illustrations to both books, which led to me looking out for other illustrations of the books, and over the last few years I have copied several of them. Here's what I've done. Let's begin with Tenniel's illustrations

Sir John Tenniel

As I said, I wasn't originally planning to look at the way that different illustrators have produced illustrations to the Alice books that I've enjoyed. I came to this through my interest in Tenniel. Gradually this mutated into the Alice project I gave myself. I don't claim that I'm a good enough draughtsman to produce perfect copies of Tenniel's work, but I do find copying his illustrations to be both relaxing and rewarding. I hope that it's helped me understand why I find his work so effective a little bit better. 

Mervyn Peake

I don't know that anyone will ever produce a full set of illustrations for the Alice books that I end up loving more than Tenniel's. But I do have other illustrators of the books who I really appreciate. Foremost of thee is Mervyn Peake. He's probably best remembered for his novels, the Gormenghast Trilogy. However he wasn't just a great writer, he was also a brilliant illustrator as well, as seen from some of these copies here. I watched a BBC Documentary, where his son said that at about the same time he was starting to prepare the illustrations for Alice he was also attending the Nuremberg War Crimes trials after World War 2 and he is sure that they were influenced by what he saw and heard. As an aside, I also love Peake's illustrations of Treasure Island.

Arthur Rackham

Arthur Rackham is reckoned to be one of the finest artist illustrators of the British Golden Age of illustration, which lasted from the start of the 20th century until the first world war. At this time there was a market for sumptuously illustrated books , often given as Christmas presents. Rackham had made a name for himself with his fantasy illustrations of fairy tales, myths and legends, and so he was an obvious choice for the Alive books. Rackham's style involved a bold use of ink, with a subtle use of watercolour, made possible by advances in printing at the time. Rackham's illustrations give the book a fairytale quality. I think he gets it spot on with his illustration of the character, which I tried to copy, but less so in other illustrations featuring Alice herself. Just my opinion, feel free to disagree.

Ralph Steadman

In the late sixties Ralph Steadman illustrated both of the Alice books. Of all of the Alice illustrators I've seen I think that Ralph Steadman captures the madness and the twisted logic of the books better than anyone, even Tenniel. Which does not mean I like all of them. For me, Ralph Steadman as an illustrator is very marmite - I either absolutely love what he produces - the ones I've copied her are examples of the illustrations that I like - while I have a strong dislike of others, like his depictions of caterpillar and Mad Hatter. In a way, that's how it should be, though. You don't wan illustrations that just leave you cold with no real reaction one way or another. As with Mervyn Peake, I do love many of his Treasure Island illustrations as well. 

Helen Oxenbury

Helen Oxenbury won the 1999 Kate Greenaway Medal for her illustrated Alice in Wonderland. Her illustrations are clean, and look deceptively simple. (they aren't simple at all, as you will find out if you try to copy them) They lighten the story, and kind of give it back to the children it was written for. What I like about Helen Oxenbury's illustrations are that they bring Alice herself into the modern day, without doing it in a self conscious or in yer face way. They have great charm, which is a quality that we often underrate. 

Other Illustrations

The vast majority of Alice illustrations I have yet copied are by the four artists above. However I came upon the original of this copy, which is by an artist called E.B.Thurstan. It was published in 1930. Frustratingly I have been able to discover nothing about the artist. But I love the original of this. Yes, I think it owes maybe a debt to the Tenniel Humpty Dumpty, but I think Humpty himself is stunning, and our viewpoint, looking down onto his wall, is brilliant. 

This 1907 rendition of the White Rabbit was drawn by Harry Furniss. As well as working for Punch, the same magazine as Tenniel for 14 years, Furniss was also the illustrator of Lewis Carroll’s later “Sylvie and Bruno” novels. He worked closely with Carroll – probably too closely for his liking, and the story goes that it got to the point that he would pretend to be out when Carroll called round. After this Furniss vowed he would never work with Carroll again. It’s not surprising. After working with Carroll on “Looking Glass”, Tenniel told him that he had completely lost the facility of illustrating novels. Maybe that was true, but then it may just well be that he didn’t fancy ever working with Carroll again.

Harry Furniss was 11 years old when the book was first published, and so the story goes he was bitterly disappointed that he was too young to illustrate it. One of the reasons why he would never work with Carroll again after Sylvie and Bruno might well have been because the books were nothing like the Alice books. The copyright for Alice in Wonderland ran out in 19o7, and Harry Furniss produced 20 illustrations for an edition.

If you look at Furniss’ white rabbit on the left, and compare it with Tenniel’s on the right, maybe you’ll have the same thought that I did occur to you – the same but different. At least Furniss illustrated something that Tenniel didn't, Alice actually falling down the rabbit hole. his is possibly my favourite Furniss illustration.

Let me show you my copy of Furniss' rendering of Alice talking to the caterpillar. It shows that Furniss' Alice is a little older and more mature looking than Tenniel's.

Another Harry who illustrated Alice was Harry Rountree, a New Zealander who came to London to work in the first half of the 20th century. He actually illustrated Alice twice, in 1908 and then again in 1928. I think that these are from the same edition, which, judging by Alice's hairstyle is the 1928 edition.

Sir Quentin Blake is the living illustrator whom I would most like to see doing a complete set of illustrations for the Alice books. To the best of my knowledge he has never yet illustrated them. He has, however, illustrated The Walrus and the Carpenter poem from Looking Glass, and that's what I've copied here. 

Two brothers, Charles and Thomas Heath Robinson were amongst the first illustrators to illustrate "Alice in Wonderland" after the copyright ran out. The first 3 are by Charles. In particular I think that Alice in the pool of tears is an incredible piece of illustration.

This second is by T.H. Robinson, and is my favourite rendition of Alice extending upwards like a telescope. 

This is another TH Robinson that I rather like, showing the caterpillar, complete with turban.