Alice, seen by waking eyes

Lewis Carroll's magnificently imaginative work has inspired generations of artists to present their personal visions of the great fantasy tale.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is one of the most popular children’s books of all time. Authored by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, known by his pen name, Lewis Carroll, and published in 1865, it narrates the whimsical tale of a little girl, her adventures inside a rabbit hole, and her encounters with a string of magical characters. Originally meant to arouse juvenile fancies, the power, magic, and playfulness of the tale have attracted a readership of countless children as well as grown-ups. The sparkling humour and incredible twists embedded in the wonderfully rich and nonsensical story have also inspired generations of writers, poets, artists, and illustrators across the world.

“Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is told as the story of a dream, and this sets it free to indulge in any kind of incredible happening,” writes Malcolm Thomson. “The wit, the simplicity and unexpectedness of the story carry its readers on eagerly from one surprise to another… A happy feature of the story is the way in which Alice talks aloud to herself in an artless fashion about her strange predicaments, and spills out delicious parodies of familiar verses when she tries to recite them… As we close these books, we reflect that C L Dodgson treasured in his complex nature the heart of a little child. Lewis Carroll recorded its fancies for our undying delight.”

Eminent British artist John Vernon Lord was another ardent admirer of Carroll. “There is hardly anything new to be said about Lewis Carroll’s two ‘Alice’ books,” he says. “Their contents have been probed by the scalpels of psychoanalysts, literary theorists, annotators, enthusiasts, and journalists. Perhaps I should include illustrators among this group, for it is the illustrator’s duty to get to grips with the text and thus make a visual commentary upon it.”

A mathematician’s art

Carroll, who pursued a religious career and became a deacon in 1861, was a man of many interests. He was a professional mathematician who had a long stint teaching mathematics at Christ Church, Oxford from 1855 to 1881. He wrote poetry and was an enthusiastic painter. He also pursued the art of photography actively. (His obsession of photographing young children including Alice Liddell — somewhat controversially and in unclothed condition — has provoked some historians to believe that Dodgson may have had paedophilic tendencies).

The origin of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is interesting and well-documented. On 4 July 1862, Charles Dodgson, then a 30-year-old English mathematician and logician, took a trip down the river between Oxford and Godstow. Accompanying him were Alice Liddell and her sisters. As they floated down the river, Dodgson made up a whimsical story to entertain the little girls.

Hooked by the narration, Alice pleaded with the storyteller to write it down for her. Dodgson took his time, and by February 1863, he had completed writing the story and even begun to illustrate the manuscript. Encouraged by friends, he later expanded the 15,500-word original story to 27,500 words; and succeeded in getting the Punch artist John Tenniel to do the illustrations. Interestingly, Dodgson took on the name of Lewis Carroll before the first edition was printed in July 1865. A sequel Through the Looking Glass came out (with Tenniel’s illustrations) in December 1871.

From Tenniel to Dali

Carroll’s Alice stories have enthused many artists to lend their personal vision to the great fantasy. The 92 original drawings of John Tenniel (1820-1914) accompanying the Alice tales are considered to be among the most famous literary illustrations. Described as ‘a great artist and a great gentleman’, Tenniel was a prominent Victorian illustrator and political cartoonist. He was knighted for public service in 1893, the first such honour ever bestowed on an illustrator or cartoonist in England.

Thanks to the unexpected twists and whimsicality of Alice tales, they have often been tagged as a probable foreseer of surrealism, a popular literary, philosophical, and artistic movement in the 20th century. In 1969, famous surrealist painter Salvador Dali (1904–1989) was commissioned by New York’s Maecenas Press-Random House to illustrate a special edition of the Carroll classic. The outcome was a set of 12 heliogravures (one for each chapter of the book); and an original signed etching in four colours as the frontispiece. The volume went on to become a huge success.

Allen Boudreaux, collector of Alice books and treatises for over 25 years, does not consider the Alice tales to be surrealist. He, however, agrees that they were undeniably influential to some surrealists. “Dali’s Alice drawings and Alice books do share much in common with surrealist art — strange creatures, illogical scenes, non-sequiturs, unexpected juxtapositions, etc. At best, Carroll’s writing was an early ancestor of surrealism.”

More recently, Alice’s story has creatively inspired Yayoi Kusama, Japan’s most celebrated contemporary artist. Her visually captivating take on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Penguin UK/2012) is hailed as ‘a breathtaking piece of visual philosophy to complement Carroll’s timeless vision’. “Kusama’s visionary take on Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland,” wrote The Huffington Post reviewer, “shows how no matter how old you are, childhood never has to end.”