Before illustrating his Alice books, John Tenniel was not only a well-established cartoonist already, but also an experienced illustrator,41 who had contributed five illustrations to Charles Dickens‘s The Haunted Man (1848);42 provided the Reverend Thomas James‘s version of Aesop’s Fables (1848) with one hundred and eight
illustrations;43 and executed sixty-nine pictures for Thomas Moore‘s Lalla Rookh (1861),44 just to name a few. Yet, as Alice’s Adventures was Carroll‘s first work for young readers, the book was also Tenniel‘s first contribution to children‘s literature.
According to Joyce Irene Whalley, this was ―perhaps for the first time an artist and a writer working together to produce a definitive form of an illustrated story.‖45
Regarding their time commitment and the output, Tenniel was first a political cartoonist, then a book illustrator, and last a children‘s book illustrator. However, it was his outstanding contribution to the two Alice books—the only two children‘s books Tenniel had ever illustrated—that made his works widely known and memorable for more than 150 years.46
3.1. Life and Career of John Tenniel
John Tenniel Junior was born on 28 February 1820 in London. His father, John Baptist Tenniel was an instructor in arms, swordsmanship, fencing, boxing, rowing and ballroom dancing. Naturally, John Tenniel was given from his father those
formative lessons for cultivating a gentleman. But, compared with fencing and riding, John Tenniel was more fascinated with drawing. According to the renowned biblical painter John Martin‘s recollection, when Tenniel was ―little more than a child,‖ he had joined the Martin children in their art studies at the British Museum ―receiving all the
41 ―By the time of his first meeting with Lewis Carroll, Tenniel was an illustrator of some twenty years‘ standing,‖ said Frankie Morris. See Morris (as note 6), p. 119.
42 Charles Dickens, The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain, A Fancy for Christmas-Time, London:
Bradbury & Evans, 1848.
43 Thomas James, Aesop’s Fables, a new version, chiefly from original sources, New York: Collins, 1848.
44 Thomas Moore, Lalla Rook: An Oriental Romance, London: Longman, Green, Longman & Roberts, 1861; the book was first published in 1817.
45 Joyce Irene Whalley, ―The Development of Illustrated Texts and Picture Books,‖ in: International Companion Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature, edited by Peter Hunt, London and New York:
Routledge, 1996, P. 226.
46 As a cartoonist, ―Tenniel produced in excess of 2,000 full-page political cuts in his half-century on Punch.‖ See Roger Simpson, Sir John Tenniel: Aspects of His Work, London: Associated University Presses, 1994, p. 10; as a book illustrator, Tenniel had illustrated over thirty books. See Engen (as note 5), p. 164; as a children‘s book illustrator, Tenniel contributed only to the two Alice books.
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advantages of joint instruction and suggestions.‖47 The drawing brought him passion and joy, whereas the fencing cost Tenniel one eye. This terrible injury happened one day in 1840 when Tenniel joined his father for their fencing match, and according to Spielmann, ―his father‘s protective button fell off the tip of his foil, and the sharp blade flicked across his son‘s right eye, blinding it.‖48
Tenniel was largely self-taught, and he used to underline this fact. ―I never learned drawing, except in so far as attending a school and being allowed to teach myself. I attended the Royal Academy Schools after becoming a probationer, soon left in utter disgust of there being no teaching. I had a great idea of High Art!‖49 While it is a well-known fact that Tenniel devoted most of his time to making political
cartoons and book illustrations from 1850 onwards, high art had, nevertheless, been his lifelong pursuit.50 Tenniel began showing his work in the Society of British Artists in 1835; and only two years later in 1837, when he was sixteen, Tenniel‘s work surprisingly found a buyer, the popular Irish stage actor Tyrone Power (1795–1841).51 In the same year, he made his debut at the Royal Academy‘s summer exhibition and became a regular exhibitor for the next seven years, from 1837 to 1843.52 For the most memorable feat, Tenniel would recall that ―in fact, in 1845, I sent in a
sixteen-foot-high cartoon for Westminster Palace.‖53 Even after joining Punch and being heavily occupied by a full-time position and the additional commission of book illustrations, Tenniel still did watercolor occasionally.54 His earlier ambition in High Art never relinquished.
Little needs to be said here about Tenniel‘s joining Punch, for it has already been fully reiterated.55 To accept the Punch offer marks a turning point in Tenniel‘s life and career. Just as Roger Simpson observed, ―Tenniel‘s career progressed slowly
47 Leopold Charles Martin, ―Reminiscences of John Martin,‖ part 6, in: The Newcastle Weekly Chronicle, 9 February 1889; quoted from Frankie Morris, (as note 6), p. 22.
48 Engen (as note 5), p. 11; see also Marion Harry Spielmann, The History of Punch, New York: The Cassell Publishing Co., 1895, p. 472.
49 Spielmann (as note 48), p. 461.
50 Tenniel‘s occupational entries shown in successive censuses, such as ―Historical painter,‖ ―artist painter,‖ and the like, seemed to attest his lingering ambition in High Art. See Morris (as note 6), p. 77.
51 Morris (as note 6), p. 25.
52 Engen (as note 5), p. 9.
53 The title of Tenniel‘s design is ―Allegory of Justice.‖ Consequently, Tenniel became one of the five who were chosen to make a fresco, though a different design, in the Upper Waiting Hall, or ‗Hall of Poets,‘ of the House of Lords. Spielmann (as note 48), p. 461; see also Morris (as note 6), p. 39.
54 Morris (as note 6), p. 78.
55 For this respect, readers can refer to Tenniel‘s biographies, for example, ―Artist of Wonderland: The Life, Political Cartoons, and Illustrations of Tenniel‖ by Frankie Morris; or ―Sir John Tenniel: Alice’s White Knight‖ by Rodney Engen.
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through what is certainly its most critical decade, the 1840s, until he started drawing for Punch in December 1850.‖56 Frankie Morris further claimed: ―Without Punch Tenniel might never have attained such prominence.‖57 Joining Punch was opening new possibilities for Tenniel‘s life. There is no doubt that Tenniel‘s becoming the illustrator of Carroll‘s Alice books has to do with his Punch career.58 Frankie Morris noticed that ―Carroll had been a Punch reader since his teens.‖59 The same author, furthermore, recalled Carroll‘s ―small collection of cuttings,‖60 taken from 1856 to 1862 from Punch, which ―shows a preponderance of drawings by Tenniel.‖61 No wonder that when Carroll had to choose the illustrator for his Alice story, he would say: ―I want some figure-pictures done in pure outline, or nearly so, and of all artists on wood, I should prefer Mr. Tenniel‖62
On 25 January 1864, when Carroll went to London to meet Tenniel, the former
―was a little-known Oxford tutor with some small publication experience,‖63 while the latter ―was an illustrator of some twenty years‘ standing‖64 and the chief
cartoonist of Punch. Considering Tenniel‘s previous commissions which were either for well-known works such as Aesop’s Fables and Lalla Rookah; or for a well-known writer such as Charles Dickens, his consent to illustrate Carroll‘s story was especially noteworthy. Although the collaboration between these two men was ―a trouble one,‖65 the result has proved to be beyond any expectations.
Tenniel was knighted in 1893, thereafter being known as Sir John Tenniel. In 1901, at the age of eighty, Tenniel retired from Punch. Unlike most artists who became famous after death, Tenniel had received considerable public reputation throughout his life. Susan Meyer noticed in this regard: ―Punch cartoons and Alice books earned him a popularity seldom accorded an illustrator in England.‖66 John
56 Simpson (as note 46), p. 12.
57 Morris (as note 6), p. 2.
58 For the record, Susan E. Meyer suggested that ―Carroll had admired Tenniel‘s rendition of Aesop‘s Fables and thought him suitable for the beasts in the Alice book.‖ See Susan E. Meyer, A Treasury of the Great Children‘s Book Illustrators, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1983, p. 66.
59 Morris (as note 6), p. 139; Lewis Carroll, The Rectory Umbrella and Mischmasch, London: Cassell, 1932, pp. 43, 48, 49, for his early admiration for Punch.
60 Morris (as note 6), p. 139.
61 Ibid.
62 See the letter from Carroll to Tom Taylor, 20 December 1863, quoted from Morton N. Cohen and Roger Lancelyn Green (eds.), The Selected Letters of Lewis Carroll, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1989, p. 27.
63 Morris (as note 6), p. 139.
64 Morris (as note 6), p. 119.
65 Cohen and Wakeling (as note 6), p. 1.
66 Meyer (as note 58), p. 77.
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Tenniel died at the age of ninety-three on 25 February 1914.
3.2. The First Illustrator of Alice’s Adventures
Joyce Irene Whalley claimed that so many illustrators ―have since tried to interpret Carroll‘s Wonderland creatures, but surely no one has portrayed them so memorably as their first illustrator, Sir John Tenniel.‖67 Being the first illustrator of Alice’s Adventures after the author himself, John Tenniel with his drawings not only set the benchmark for the visual interpretation of the book, but also wielded significant influence on the subsequent illustrators of the story. This can be confirmed by Will Brooker‘s study on five twentieth-century versions, the result of which suggests that, as the author confirms, ―not one of the five illustrators discussed in this section fully escapes the visual stamp that Tenniel first imposed in the mid-1860s.‖68
Among the illustrators of Alice’s Adventures, Tenniel was the only contemporary who was also befriended with the author Lewis Carroll. According to Otto F. Ege, ―[a]
finely illustrated book is more likely to happen if both author and illustrator are contemporaries, each having the same ‗time spirit‘ experiences, sympathy with each other‘s points of view.‖69 The collaboration between Tenniel and Carroll met with all these conditions. There can be no doubt that Tenniel would understand the Alice story much better than other illustrators. With this unique advantage and his extensive experience in book illustration, Tenniel was able to make ―the first complete
interpretation of a fantasy world, which has survived more than a century of change in children‘s books.‖70 The contemporary author of a review of Alice’s Adventures confirmed: ―Of Mr. Tenniel‘s illustrations we need only say that he has entered
67 Whalley (as note 45), p. 226.
68 Will Brooker, Alice’s adventures: Lewis Carroll and Alice in popular culture, New York: Continuum, 2004, p. 143.
69 See Ege (as note 8), pp. 10–11.
70 Whalley (as note 45), p. 226.
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equally into the fun and graceful sentiment of his author.‖71 Tenniel‘s strong empathy regarding Carroll‘s text explains why the status of his version is irreplaceable and never out of date.
71 Margaret Gatty, Aunt Judy’s Magazine for Young People, 1 June 1866, p.123; see also Virginia Haviland (ed.), Children and Literature: Views and Reviews, 1973, p. 20.
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