The Blue Caterpillar
From Carroll’s direct portrait to Tenniel’s enigmatic over-the-shoulder scene
Carroll’s early sketches
Carroll had difficulty depicting the Blue Caterpillar. Completely wrapped up on itself, the creature is somehow limbless and must rest the hookah awkwardly on the mushroom. The depiction on the right, in brown ink, is a later trial.
Lewis Carroll (1832–1898)
Preliminary sketches of the Blue Caterpillar
Drawing (graphite and pen-and-ink on paper), 1862-1864
Photography: Christ Church Library
© Governing Body of Christ Church, Oxford
Carroll’s final drawing in the manuscript
Carroll’s finished drawing in the original manuscript refines the figures and adjusts the scale of the illustration. The straightforward depiction shows the Alice and the Blue Caterpillar languidly staring at each other in the moments before their memorable conversation.
Lewis Carroll (1832–1898)
Alice’s Adventures Under Ground
Illustrated manuscript, completed 13 September 1864
© The British Library Board, Add MS46700
Tenniel’s final drawing
For Alice’s encounter with the Blue Caterpillar, Tenniel radically alters the visual perspective from Carroll’s drawing the manuscript. Tenniel also subtly shifts the moment depicted, showing the Blue Caterpillar removing the hookah to begin the unencouraging start to their conversation: “Who are you?”
Image credit:
John Tenniel (1832—1914)
The Blue Caterpillar
Final drawing (graphite on paper), 1864-1865
The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Gale, 1982.11:3.
Photography by Steven H. Crossot, 2014.
Dalziel’s copy
George and Edward Dalziel—the finest wood engravers of the day—were commissioned for Alice. They made these pen-and-ink copies of Tenniel’s designs probably after printing the first proofs of the illustrations.
George Dalziel (1815–1902) or Edward Dalziel (1817–1905)
After John Tenniel’s The Blue Caterpillar
Drawing (pen-and-ink on paper), 1865
The Newberry Library, Chicago. Call # Case 4A. 878
The first edition
Ever attuned to the relationship between text and image, Carroll decided to make this illustration fill up more than half of the page so that the chapter opening—which describes exactly the moment that is illustrated—could be read as a caption.
Image credit:
Lewis Carroll (1832—1898)
John Tenniel (1820—1914), illustrator
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
London: Macmillan, 1865
The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. PML 352027.
Photography by Graham S. Haber 2014.
Tenniel’s color version for The Nursery “Alice”
Tenniel worked with Edmund Evans for the first version printed in color. In the initial proof (right), the colors were generally too dark and over-saturated. Tenniel’s notes around the proof call for specific changes, reflected in the version on the left.
John Tenniel (1820–1914)
The Blue Caterpillar
Revised color proof bound in Lewis Carroll’s The Nursery “Alice” (London: Macmillan and Co., [1889])
Private Collection. Photography by Graham S. Haber, 2015.