Early illustrators

John Watson Davis

Born in Brooklyn (1870), John Watson Davis started his art education in Paris, after moving to Europe with his family at the age of ten. His father was also a book illustrator. His long career as illustrator is recognised,  in addition to his religious commissions, mostly by his drawings for Edgar Allan Poe novels and the Zane Grey tales of Sherlock Holmes.

J. Watson Davis drawing of Alice Adventures in Wonderland is hard to date with precision. There are two different editions, both including also Alice Through the Looking-Glass. The blue edition displays 8 colour plates, the red one only 4. Interestingly enough, these plates are different between books, despite both books being published by A.L. Burts (New York). If the blue book was published in 1901, and the red one in 1905,  is really hard to confirm, since none of them displays a printing date. What seems to be certain, is that this illustrated Alice was commercialized before 1907, this is, prior to the original Tenniel rights ceasing.

A. L. BURT , the publisher, was one of the first to use color, albeit only using orange (or light red). In both editions, J. Watson Davis drawings are very coherent, showing all of them the same halftone Alice, with orange details and a pale skin color.

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Blanche McManus (formerly identified as Unknown illustrator)

This Alice in Wonderland retold by Edith Robarts was first published in 1910 by Ward Lock & Co. The book offers 8 beautiful colour plates from an unknown artist. Interestingly, the March Hare is very similar to the one incorrectly attributed to Eleonora Mann.

Recently, I it was brought to my attention that these illustrations are very similar to those of Blanche McManus , one the first non-Tenniel versions of Alice (1899).

edith

Ada Leonora Bowley

Ada Bowley is another example of skilled Golden Age illustrator (1880s to the 1930s) that have produced a version of Alice in the Wonderland. Pook Press has celebrated this proficuous  period by reproducing several books first printed at that time, including several early editions of illustrated Alices. Ada Bowley art work for Alice, dated from 1921, was also reprinted more recently by Pook Press.

Alice_Ada-Bowley1

Bowley was an illustrator of children books, producing complex and beautifully coloured images. The original book was a “Come to Life” Panorama unfolding edition, where no credit is given to the illustrator (A. Bowley). Raphael Tuck later published a full book displaying a beautiful pop-up composition and many colour and black and white illustrations, where Ada is finally recognised as the illustrator (she worked for Raphael Tuck as a postcard illustrator and designer for years).

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Eleonora Mann…

These were the first illustrations of Alice after Tenniel. Interestingly enough, these illustrations were incorrectly attributed to  Eleonora Mann, who in fact translated Carroll´s book to the Dutch version. The real identity of the illustrator of “Alice in het land der droomen”, printed in Amsterdam in 1887 by BH Smit, is still unknown…

CARROLL: ALICE, 1890. Illustration by Eleonora Mann for Lewis Carroll's 'Alice's

Mabel Lucie Attwel

Known for her cute children draws, Mabel Lucie Attwel was an illustrator from the early 1900s. She completed her studies at  Saint Martin’s School of Art, and  at some point she created her own trade style, characterised by rotund cuddly infants, which was highly successful. These sweet illustrations seem to based on her daughter and end up everywhere: cards, calendars, nursery equipment, pictures and books.

Mabel Lucie Attwell’s illustrated edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was first published in 1911. Recently, in 1916,  Macmillan, the original Alice publishers, printed  a new lovely hardback gift edition.

 

Alfred Edward Jackson

AE Jackson was born in 1873. He was an exceptional and awarded student at the Camden School of Art, at the age of 18 his work was already in exhibition at the Royal Academy.

He started is long career as an illustrator of well known magazines and comics, and only a few years later has he produced his unforgettable and bestseller versions of  Gulliver’s Travels (1914),  Alice’s Adventures  (1915), Tales From Shakespeare (1919), The Water Babies (1920), Tales from the Arabian Nights (1920) and Robinson Crusoe (1921).

His dazzling purples, pinks and muted blues gave live to an extraordinary Alice.

(first published by Hoddern and Stoughton and by Milford in 1915)

Maria Louise Kirk

M.L. Kirk, as she usually signed her work, attended the Philadelphia School of Design for Women and  the Academy of Fine Arts also in Philadelphia. Award for her excellent work, she is known for her illustrations for children’s books.

Alice in Wonderland illustrated by Maria L. Kirk was first published by Stokes USA in 1904, thus previous to the 1907 boom.

Millicent Sowerby

Amy Millicent Sowerby was one of the first illustrators of Carroll’ book. Sowerby’s artwork was among the 1907/08 many new versions of Alice. Interestingly, at the time it was not very well received, and in a collective review of the 1907 editions it was said that “Sowerby attempts work rather too difficult for her, and she has not much imagination”. In 2012, Barry Moser in his Alice Illustrated: 120 Images from the Classic Tales of Lewis Carroll devoted a full chapter to Millicent Sowerby illustrations.

This book was first published by Chatto & Windus in 1907, and later (in 1913) by Hodder & Stoughton (displaying a new set of illustrations).

Millicent_Sowerby birds

Peter Newell

Peter Newell became popular  in the 1880s  for his humorous drawings. Later, he also wrote and illustrated unusual children’s books (and poems), such as Topsys and Turvys (1893), which could be read upside-down, or the rhomboid shaped  Slant Book (1910).

He created the second illustrated version of Alice after Tenniel (the first was authored by Blanche McManus in 1899). Newell’s Alice was published by Harper & Brothers in October 1901.