Illustrating 'Alice' - Some Views of Wonderland

Lecturer Elizabeth Merry

Category Illustrations

Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland (published 1865) transformed children’s literature with its fantastic originality and brilliant use of nonsense. Since then it has never been out of print, has been translated into many languages and has spawned not only imitators but also a huge amount of analytical commentary. We start with the origins of the book and its first illustrators – the writer himself and then Sir John Tenniel. So iconic was the book that as soon as it came out of copyright a host of artists produced their own versions – including Arthur Rackham, Mabel Lucie Attwell and Charles Robinson (brother of Thomas Heath Robinson). Throughout the 20th century we see how illustrators reflect different aspects of the book as well as the preoccupations of their own times. We look further at some of the most interesting artistic portrayals including those by Willy Pogany, Mervyn Peake,…