Tenniel and Rackham: Two Great Artists of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

If you caught our Facebook Live Read-Along of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, you probably saw a variety of illustrations relating to the story done by various artists. However, in this librarian’s opinion, the two biggest artists to illustrate Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland were John Tenniel and Arthur Rackham. 

If you missed our Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Read-Along, you can start it here.

Tenniel was the first illustrator for the published versions of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Many believe that the continued success of Carroll’s two books are due in part to Tenniel’s illustrations. However, Tenniel and Carroll did not get along, and when Through the Looking Glass was completed Tenniel declared that his inspiration was gone and that he was done with children’s books. Originally known as a political cartoonist for the magazine Punch, Tenniel continued working there until his retirement at age 80.

Many people imagine Tenniel's
illustrations when thinking of Alice.

The next big illustrator for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was Arthur Rackham. His illustrations were featured in the 1907 reprinting of Carroll's book, and at that time Rackham was considered to be a prominent illustrator. However, when the 1907 version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was published, many Tenniel fans were furious and felt that Rackham was erasing the perfection of Tenniel's work. Despite the controversy, the reprinting with Rackham's illustrations were a commercial success.

Whether you like Tenniel's or Rackham's style best, we have books depicting both illustrators' work, as well as a version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland that contains illustrations by various artists. See below for a list of book recommendations, and don't forget you can watch our read-along of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland through the library's YouTube page.

Rackham's watercolors are considered
ethereal and otherworldly.

Suggested Reading

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
This book tells of a girl named Alice falling through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures. The tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults as well as with children. It is considered to be one of the best examples of the literary nonsense genre. Its narrative course and structure, characters and imagery have been enormously influential in both popular culture and literature, especially in the fantasy genre.

The Annotated Alice by Lewis Carroll
For over half a century, Martin Gardner has established himself as one of the world's leading authorities on Lewis Carroll. His Annotated Alice, first published in 1959, has over half a million copies in print around the world and is beloved by both families and scholars—for it was Gardner who first decoded many of the mathematical riddles and wordplay that lay ingeniously embedded in Carroll's two classic stories, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Decoded by David Day
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland--published 150 years ago in 1865--is a book many of us love and feel we know well. But it turns out we have only scratched the surface. Scholar David Day has spent many years down the rabbit hole of this children's classic and has emerged with a revelatory new view of its contents. What we have here, he brilliantly and persuasively argues, is a complete classical education in coded form--Carroll's gift to his "wonder child" Alice Liddell.

The Fantastic Line Art of Arthur Rackham by Arthur Rackham

Arthur Rackham is regarded as one of the leading illustrators from the golden age of British book illustration, which went from 1890 until the end of World War I. The acclaim for the artist's wealth of color illustrations has overshadowed the merit of his first-rate ink work, a genre deserving of individual attention. This original volume, the first available collection of Rackham's line art, features images from throughout his career, including illustrations for Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and some rare periodical work.