Month: August 2026

Marina Budanova

Among the most striking recent interpretations of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland are those created by the Russian illustrator Marina Budanova, whose vibrant and imaginative artwork brings a fresh visual energy to Lewis Carroll’s classic tale. Budanova, a children’s book illustrator and visual storyteller, has developed a distinctive style characterized by bold colour palettes, decorative detail, and vivid compositions.

Published in 2024 by Metamorphoses, and consider one of the best illustrations of the year, Budanova’s Alice immediately caught the attention of collectors and Alice enthusiasts. Her Wonderland is not a Victorian fantasy filtered through nostalgia, but a dazzling contemporary dreamscape. Rich crimson roses, fantastical creatures, swirling patterns, and expressive characters fill each page, creating illustrations that feel both theatrical and deeply personal.

What makes Budanova’s work especially appealing is her willingness to reinvent familiar scenes. Rather than echoing Tenniel’s iconic imagery, she constructs an entirely new visual language for Wonderland. Alice appears thoughtful and self-possessed, moving through a world that is simultaneously enchanting and slightly unsettling, capturing the peculiar balance of wonder and ambiguity that lies at the heart of Carroll’s text.

The Lewis Carroll Society of North America highlighted Budanova’s edition in its 2025 survey of outstanding modern Alice illustrators, praising her “wildly colorful and truly imaginative paintings.” Such recognition places her among a growing generation of artists demonstrating that Wonderland remains an inexhaustible source of visual inspiration.

For collectors of Alice illustration, Marina Budanova’s edition offers a fascinating example of how contemporary artists continue to reinterpret Carroll’s masterpiece.

Gennady Kalinovsky

Gennady Vladimirovich Kalinovsky was one of Russia’s most renowned illustrators. In 1943, while still a young artist, he submitted his drawing The Fall of the Nibelungs to a newspaper competition, won first prize, and received a recommendation for admission to the Moscow Secondary Art School. He later enrolled at the Surikov Art Institute, where he studied from 1949 to 1955.

Kalinovsky’s body of work, which includes illustrations for more than ninety books, is distinguished by its delicate pen-and-ink line work and richly detailed compositions. His imagery blends fantasy and surrealism, creating dreamlike scenes infused with an often subtle Gothic atmosphere.

One of Kalinovsky’s greatest artistic passions was Lewis Carroll’s Alice books, although political constraints prevented him from and publishing them until he was nearly sixty years old. He achieved widespread acclaim with his masterful black-and-white illustrations for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in Boris Zakhoder’s celebrated adaptation (1974, Detskaya Literatura). He subsequently illustrated several other works by Carroll. Particularly noteworthy are his illustrations for Through the Looking-Glass, for which he received the Ivan Fyodorov Prize and Diploma in 1980 and 1982. In 1988, he produced a colour edition of Alice in Wonderland. More recently, Artist’s Choice Editions has published editions of both Kalinovsky’s Alice books, combining the original black-and-white illustrations with his later colour artwork.

Many Russian collectors regard Kalinovsky’s Alice in Wonderland illustrations as among the finest interpretations of Carroll’s work ever published in Russian.