John Tenniel drew the famous original illustrations for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
Tenniel was an established English illustrator and political cartoonist when Lewis Carroll recruited him for the book. His black-and-white drawings introduced the visual versions of Alice, the White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts, and many other characters to generations of readers.
The first published edition appeared in 1865 with 42 wood-engraved illustrations by Tenniel. Carroll closely discussed the pictures with him, although the collaboration was not always easy. The original print run was withdrawn or redirected because Tenniel objected to the quality of the printing, and a new edition followed.
Tenniel’s designs became so influential that later artists often had to distinguish their work from his. Arthur Rackham, Salvador Dalí, Ralph Steadman, and many others produced different interpretations, but they were not the original illustrator of Carroll’s book. Beatrix Potter and Edward Lear were also important Victorian-era artists, yet neither created the canonical first-edition pictures. Tenniel later illustrated Through the Looking-Glass as well.