gallery – The Hunting of the Snark

Henry George Liddell

Jun 7, 1855: The Times announces that Liddell of Westminster is to be the new Dean: the selection does not seem to have given much satisfaction in the college.

Quote: C.L. Dodgson, @DodgsonDiaries on Twitter

2017-08-28, updated: 2019-06-08

In this image one of the elements has been marked (orange frame) which Henry Holiday borrowed from a 17th century painting (by an anonymous artist). This might be a bit different from the borrowing described by T. S. Eliot in 1920. In the example shown here, the borrowing of the pictorial allusion is inconspicuous. It doesn’t enrich Holiday’s illustration. It’s only purpose might be that of a signpost pointing to another work of art.

more.

2017-09-27, updated 2019-02-25

Big Head in a Mess

Bycatch from my Snark hunt:

I discovered that “face” in Matthias Grünewald’s painting in 2018, but perhaps I was not the first one. I think that Gustave Doré found it already in the year 1863 when looking for inspiration from other artwork.

2018-09-21, updated 2019-02-19

Holiday’s Butcher and Millais’ Raleigh

But perhaps Holiday’s ruff – and the pose of the Fit Five drawing – was inspired by the Elizabethan drama inherent in Millais’ Boyhood of Raleigh, (1869).

Louise Schweitzer, One Wild Flower (2012)

2017-09-04, updated 2019-01-05

My 1st Snark Trophy

I entered the Snark hunting grounds in December 2008. http://www.artandpopularculture.com/User:Goetzkluge could give you an idea where I was in 2010.

Illustrations by Henry Holiday (from The Hunting of the Snark, 1876) and Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder (Allegory of Iconoclasts, aka The Image Breakers, around 1567): In the “mouth” of Gheeraerts’ “head” a praying priest is depicted. The shape of the priest also is visible in the “mouth” of Holiday’s vanishing “Baker”.

There is more — with acknowledgments to Mahendra Singh, to John Tufail and to the Internet.

2017-08-28, updated: 2018-12-30

9.5±0.5 Snark Hunters

There may be no tenth member in Henry Holiday’s illustrations to Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark. I think that the Snark hunting party consists of nine members only. Let us take them in order of their introduction:

The Bellman, their captain.
The Boots, a maker of Bonnets and Hoods
The Barrister, brought to arrange their disputes, but repeatedly complained about the Beaver’s evil lace-making.
The Broker, to value their goods.
The Billiard-marker, whose skill was immense, might perhaps have won more than his share. From John Tufail I learned that in Henry Holiday’s illustration the Billiard-marker is preparing a cheat.
The Banker, engaged at enormous expense, had the whole of their cash in his care.
The Beaver, that paced on the deck or would sit making lace in the bow and had often (the Bellman said) saved them from wreck, though none of the sailors knew how.
The Baker, also addressed by “Fry me!”, “Fritter my wig!”, “Candle-ends” as well as “Toasted-cheese”, and known for joking with hyenas and walking paw-in-paw with a bear.
The Butcher, who only could kill Beavers, but later became best friend with the lace-making animal.