Sir john tenniel biography

John Tenniel , one of the most recognizable Victorian illustrators, was born in London on February 28, The son of a dancer and a fencing instructor, Tenniel briefly attended the British Royal Academy before he began exhibiting his artwork.

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At the age of sixteen, he exhibited his first oil painting at the Society of British Artists, an impressive feat for an artist who was largely self taught. When Tenniel was twenty, in , a fencing accident with his father forced him to lose the sight in his right eye. A staunchly even tempered man, Tenniel did not react to the pain of the injury, so his father did not even know he had been harmed by his rapier.

Undeterred by the partial loss of sight, Tenniel continued on his path as an artist, eventually becoming a beacon in the late nineteenth century world of illustration. In , Tenniel replaced Richard Dicky Doyle at Punch Magazine as a cartoonist, a position he held until when he replaced his friend John Leech as the principal cartoonist after his death.

Steadfast in his routine, Tenniel would continue working at Punch Magazine until his retirement in In addition to cartoons, he was also known for book illustrations, such as those in The Gordian Knot by Shirley Brooks , Lalla Rookh by Thomas Moore , considered one of his best works , and The Ingoldsby Legends on which he collaborated with his friend, John Leech and George Cruikshank Introduced to Carroll in , Tenniel agreed to create forty-two illustrations after reading the manuscript.

Carroll, a very particular person who took pride in his own artistic accomplishments, gave Tenniel very specific instructions concerning every aspect of the illustrations. When Tenniel completed the forty-two drafts, Carroll liked only one, the drawing of Humpty Dumpty. The relationship between Tenniel and Carroll was perpetually strained throughout the entirety of the creative process.

Their identical tendency towards perfectionism would not let them see eye to eye. This detail set him far apart from his contemporaries, the Pre-Raphaelites , who believed that studying and drawing from nature was the only way to produce truthful art. Too much the product of academic training, Tenniel worked best when he referred to the techniques and images in his visual memory and drew without observation.