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Essay / John Tenniel and his illustration from “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll
Table of contentsAbout the artistStyleGrotesqueImage and textWoodcutsAbout the imageCharactersCopyright and translationsLewis Carroll himself even originally illustrated Wonderland, but his artistic abilities were rare. An old engraver who had worked for Carroll in 1859 had looked at Carroll's drawings and suggested that he hire a professional illustrator. Carroll was an avid reader of "Punch" magazine and was therefore familiar with Tenniel's work. In 1865, after a long conversation with Carroll, John Tenniel illustrated the first edition of “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland”. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay About the Artist John Tenniel was a famous British illustrator and political cartoonist in the late 19th century. His artistic achievements were recognized in 1893. John Tenniel is remembered as an important cartoonist for Punch magazine where he worked for over 50 years, and for his illustrations for Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland (1865 ). For all of Punch magazine's fame, most of Tenniel's fame comes from his illustrations for Alice. Tenniel drew ninety-two designs for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. More often than not, Carroll would give Tenniel specific instructions on what should be drawn, which not only concerned visual preferences but also a particular way of presenting certain references in the story. Additionally, illustrators have a specific style and are also influenced, knowingly or unknowingly. by their environment and their past. Therefore, Tenniel's drawing style, jokes and other "trademarks" are not essentially accurate to the Alice books, but can also be found in his other works. Style The Nazarene movement gave rise to a style that influenced many artists such as Tenniel. This style can be categorized as "shaded outlines" where the lines on the drawings are given extra thickness or are drawn as double lines providing shading or volume. This style is also extremely precise, with the artist drawing a hard, defined outline along his figures. After the 1850s, Tenniel's style modernized to feature more detail in backgrounds and figures. In addition to a change in background, Tenniel developed a new interest in human forms and expressions and this was reflected in Tenniel's Wonderland illustrations. Another style change was his shaded lines. These have evolved from mechanical horizontal lines to actively hand-drawn hatching which dramatically intensify darker areas. Grotesque “Tenniel's grotesqueness is what attracted Lewis Carroll to let him illustrate for the Alice books. According to the dictionary, the grotesque is an anomaly that gives the disturbing impression that the real world may have ceased to be reliable. Tenniel's style was grotesque in his dark atmospheric compositions of carefully described exaggerated fantasy creatures. But often the idea was to use animal heads on recognizable human bodies or vice versa. In Jean's illustrations, the grotesque is also found in the fusion of things and the deformities of the human body. The most particularly grotesquely realized is that of Tenniel's famous Jabberwocky drawing in Alice. Scholars such as Morris say that Tenniel's stylistic shift can be attributed to the late-century trend1850s towards realism. For the grotesque to operate, “it is our world that must be transformed and not a fantastical kingdom.” These subtle points of realism help convince readers that all of these seemingly grotesque inhabitants of Wonderland are just themselves, are simply real, and not acting. Alice's illustrations combine fantasy and reality.Image and TextThe placement of Tenniel's illustrations on the pages is one of the elements to note. There is a clever and subtle blend of illustrations with the text. Carroll and Tenniel wanted to express this in different ways, one of many being bracketing. Two relevant sentences would frame an illustration, which could better define the moment. Woodcuts Tenniel agreed on designs with Carroll, drawing them on bleached blocks of dense boxwood. The engravers then worked on the block, cutting out the blank parts so that the image was in relief. Then the designs were engraved to the highest standards, by the Dalziel brothers. In October 1864, the Dalziels recommended printing Alice's illustrations directly from the woodblocks. This method gave the best results. Thousands of prints could be made from wooden blocks, but they could not survive printing on an industrial scale. Carroll appears to have ordered numerous (expensive!) modifications. Ignoring Dalziel's advice, he decided to follow mass production techniques, using metal replicas of the wooden blocks called electrotypes. It’s fortunate that he did; No one predicted how popular Alice would be and the woodcuts would not have survived the many printed editions. The process of creating the wooden blocks was quite difficult and so sometimes concessions had to be made on the overall design of the illustration. For example, a character would be moved to a different position. About the image John Tenniel's intact illustration is like a visual paradox, where the caterpillar's face seems to be formed from the head and legs of a real caterpillar. Although the original illustrations are in black and white, in Alice's Adventures Under ground and The Nursery Alice, the caterpillar is described as blue. The caterpillar is the first character who makes a real effort to guide Alice on her journey. As she gets tired of growing and shrinking due to events beyond her control, the caterpillar teaches her to eat parts of the mushroom to control her size and thus familiarize herself with her surroundings when needed. The Caterpillar is rather strict and unfriendly, and corrects Alice's recitation of a poem, but he also teaches her how to deal with the difficult situations she encounters in Wonderland. Eventually, he crawls away. Some critics, particularly in popular culture, see the caterpillar as an agent of the drug culture, since he smokes hookah and shows Alice how to eat a magic mushroom. This caused controversies about banning the book altogether. But I believe the caterpillar is actually a laid-back guru who helps Alice understand how to control the fantasy world she explores. The caterpillar also tells Alice that changing size and shape is not always a bad thing: after all, one day the caterpillar will transform into a butterfly, and instead of being afraid, it will be the highlight of its life. , the caterpillar mushroom also has multiple symbolic meanings. Some readers and critics view the caterpillar as a sexual threat, its phallic form being a symbol of sexual virility. The caterpillar mushroom connects to this denotative meaning. Alice must”.