author
John Tenniel
1820–1914
Best known for giving visual life to Alice in Wonderland, he was also one of Victorian Britain’s most influential cartoonists. His crisp, memorable drawings helped shape how generations of readers pictured both fantasy and politics.
1 Audiobook
Cartoons by Sir John Tenniel, Selected from the Pages of "Punch"
by John Tenniel
About the author
Born in London in 1820, Sir John Tenniel became one of the great illustrators of the Victorian era. He was largely self-taught, though he also studied at the Royal Academy Schools, and early in his career he built a reputation for careful draftsmanship and strong black-and-white design.
Tenniel is remembered most widely for his illustrations for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. Those images became so closely tied to the stories that they still define the look of Alice, the Mad Hatter, and the White Rabbit for many readers today.
Alongside his book work, he spent decades as a leading cartoonist for Punch, where his political and satirical drawings made him a major public voice in 19th-century Britain. He was knighted in 1893, a rare honor for an illustrator at the time, and he died in London in 1914.