Beyond Wonderland

Perhaps primarily known today as the illustrator of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There (1871), Sir John Tenniel was, in his own lifetime, highly regarded as the chief political cartoonist for the British satirical magazine, Punch.

He spent over 50 years at the magazine, from 1850 to 1901, witnessing and satirizing a period of great social and historical change in the UK and internationally. 

Tenniel’s father was a fencing master. In a duel whilst training his son, he accidentally caught the young man in the eye with an unprotected foil. Tenniel’s vision deteriorated in the wounded eye until he was almost blind. This did not hinder Tenniel’s own form of rapier-sharpness, however, and his illustrations and watercolors became known for their keen eye and meticulous detail, despite his visual impairment.

He was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1893, the first ‘cartoonist’ to achieve the honor. He is credited with raising the status of illustration and cartoon-drawing to a recognized position. Here are some of his important works, from wonderland and beyond.

‘Curiouser and curiouser!' cried Alice (she was so much surprised that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English)...

…‘now I'm opening out like the largest telescope that ever was! Good-bye, feet!' 

In this timeless scene, Alice, after eating a mysterious cake, grows to be nine feet tall. Tenniel’s illustrations helped to cement Carroll’s stories in the popular imagination. Here we see Alice’s now-iconic yellow and blue dress, and the ‘DRINK ME!’ label on the bottle.

This famous depiction of Alice’s encounter with the grinning cheshire cat playfully (menacingly?) wraps itself around the space where the text would appear in print.

For several years from October 1853, Britain fought a successful campaign alongside France and the Ottoman Empire in the Crimean War. Many British soldiers were decorated for their service. Tenniel, whose career began with aspirations towards ‘high art,’ produced many watercolors of such ceremonies throughout his life.

Tenniel here depicts Sir Thomas Trowbridge receiving his medal. Trowbridge was, according to chroniclers, “with his shattered limbs...drawn along in a bath chair by a Private of his Regt.”

Prince Albert stands behind the Queen, and beside her the Prince of Wales, in Highland Dress.

Another image of a historical ceremony linked to the Crimean War, this imposing watercolor depicts the 1856 unveiling of the Scutari Monument, erected to commemorate the victory.

It was the “grotesqueness” of Tenniel’s drawings for Punch which appealed to Carroll when he approached him with the Alice collaboration, but these historical watercolors also show the illustrator’s eye for perspective and line. 

The towering column is framed powerfully by the structure of Crystal Palace in the background. 

At the base of the column, the rigid stance of the palace guards is itself sculptural...  

…and is offset by the milling crowd on the balcony…

...and the marvelling figures in the right foreground, giving the occasion a dual energy of both military rigor and bustling celebration.

During his own lifetime, it was for his political cartoons that Tenniel was most well known. Working from a tradition of British satire influenced by William Hogarth, Tenniel chronicled current affairs with great wit and insight. His consistent commentary alongside a half-century of British political history earned him great renown.

This image shows ‘The Spirit of Anarchy,’ personified as a ghostly wraith…

...tempting the disaffected and unemployed working class man over a cliff.

Published in November 1886, this cartoon was perhaps lightly mocking workers for being easily led to unrest. But it more pointedly warns the newly elected Conservative government (who came to power in July of that year, but were reliant on a coalition with the newly-formed Liberal Unionist Party) that ignoring a frustrated and under-employed working class could lead to an uprising.