John Tenniel
Sir John Tenniel was an English illustrator and political cartoonist who lived from 1820 to 1914. He is mostly remembered for his illustrations of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There.
Tenniel was one of 6 children born to a middle-class family. He was shy and quiet as a boy. His father was a fencing master. When Tenniel was 20 years old, his right eye got damaged during fencing practice with his father. He eventually lost sight in his right eye, but never told his father. John Tenniel was artistically inclined from a young age. When he was 24, he entered the Royal Academy of Arts, though he was disappointed with his formal training there as he thought it never really taught him how to draw. Tenniel decided to teach himself how to draw, copying from real life as well as illustrated books where he found love in all the little details.
In the mid-1840s, Tenniel joined the Artist’s Society (Clipstone Street Life Academy), which was a group of artists who worked outside of the academy rules and helped Tenniel develop his skill of illustrating political cartoons. In 1842, Tenniel was commissioned for his first book illustration, to make drawings for Samel Carter Hall’s The Book of British Ballads. In 1850, he started illustrating political cartoons for the weekly publication, Punch. He would eventually become the chief cartoon artist and draw in this publication for the next 50 years. In this position, Tenniel illustrated the magazine editors’ thoughts on the current social and political movements happening during this time which were both influential and critical and gained him notoriety.
Though during his lifetime, his illustrations for Punch were what made him well-known, after his death, his illustrations for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland publication in 1865 gave him an international legacy. Lewis Carroll, whose real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, had originally began drafting his own illustrations for his children’s book, but was persuaded by the engraver he was working with, Orlando Jewitt, to hire a professional illustrator. John Tenniel was an up-and-coming illustrator at the time and Carroll was familiar with his work in Punch, so he was chosen for the task. Since Carroll already had illustrations in mind, he gave such specific instructions to Tenniel that their relationship became strained. The illustrations, however, along with the novel became a huge success partly due to the perfectionist attitude of both artists, and it is said that both Queen Victoria and Oscar Wilde were among those who loved it.
If Tenniel’s work looks familiar, it should, as the 1950s Disney movie, ‘Alice in Wonderland’ follows Tenniel’s interpretations closely. In 1871, Tenniel was asked to illustrate the sequel to the first Alice book titled Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There. In 1893, Tenniel was knighted by Queen Victoria. He was the first cartoonist and illustrator to receive knighthood for public service and many saw this as a main reason that this type of art got more respect in the art world. John Tenniel died at 93 years old in 1914.
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