The Hunting of the Snark

The Hunting of the Snark (1876) has been written by Lewis Carroll and illustrated by Henry Holiday. The Image shows Henry Holiday's illustrations to the front cover and the back cover of the book and paintings depicting Queen Elizabeth I, to which Henry Holyday may have alluded. There are many more pictorial allusions in Henry Holiday's Snark illustrations.

The Hunting of the Snark (1876) has been written by Lewis Carroll and illustrated by Henry Holiday. The Image shows Henry Holiday's illustrations to the front cover and the back cover of the book and paintings depicting Queen Elizabeth I. There are many more pictorial allusions in Henry Holiday's Snark illustrations.

[left]: Henry Holiday's back cover illustration (1876) to Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark . [right]: Allegorical English School painting (ca. 1610, redrawn and rearranged: 2013) of Queen Elizabeth I at Old Age with allegory of Death and Father Time . (Location of original painting: Corsham Court, EAN-Number: 4050356835081) www.corsham-court.co.uk/Pictures/Commentary.html : "This portrait of Elizabeth I illustrates the difficulties she encountered during her troubled reign. For example, conflict between Protestants and Catholics was rife and the re-drafting of the Book of Common Prayer (held in her left hand) was a sensitive issue of the time." Changes of lower segment: Shifted mirror view

[left]: Henry Holiday's back cover illustration (1876) to Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark . [right]: Allegorical English School painting (ca. 1610, redrawn, color desaturated and rearranged 2013) of Queen Elizabeth I at Old Age with allegory of Death and Father Time . (Location of original painting: Corsham Court, EAN-Number: 4050356835081) www.corsham-court.co.uk/Pictures/Commentary.html : "This portrait of Elizabeth I illustrates the difficulties she encountered during her troubled reign. For example, conflict between Protestants and Catholics was rife and the re-drafting of the Book of Common Prayer (held in her left hand) was a sensitive issue of the time." Changes of lower segment: Shifted mirror view [inset]: The Bellman , detail from Henry Holiday's front cover illustration (1876) to Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark .

The comparison shows Henry Holiday's illustration (1876) to the front cover of Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark compared to a reproduction of the Ditchley Portrait (a gift from Sir Henry Lee to Queen Elizabeth I, c. 1592) by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger. 2013-02-05: The allusions in Henry Holiday's Snark illustration to the Ditchley Portrait are not as easy to detect as in some other Snark illustrations by Holiday, yet this comparison holds the third rank in my set of Flickr Members' Snark Favorites . Watch the sail of the ship and the queen's "sail". "While I concede Tufail 's thesis (2003) that Holiday received his instructions from Carroll and created his illustrations to reflect Carroll's cryptic messages and allusions, I contend that the interpretations given to the words we know so well by so many illustrators over a period in excess of 130 years continue to keep the Snark alive. Furthermore, it is my personal belief that Holiday managed to slip in a few interpretations of his own even though Carroll approved of the end result." (Doug Howick: The Hiihijig of the Bijtcheb, Knight Letter #28, Summer 2009) Perhaps Tufail and Howick both are right. As Henry Holiday frequently alluded to works of father&son Gheeraerts, John Tufail's Illuminated Snark (2004) gave me the idea to search for a Gheeraerts painting in which a map is shown . John reckoned, that the clouds in Holiday's front cover illustration may be part of a map. I think that this possibility cannot be excluded. John's assumption then drew my attention to the Ditchley portrait. (The Ditchley portrait again helped me to find sources for Holiday's illustration to the back cover of Carroll's book as well.)

The image shows Henry Holiday's illustration (1876) to the front cover of Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark compared to a grey shaded reproduction of the Ditchley Portrait (a gift from Sir Henry Lee to Queen Elizabeth I, c. 1592) by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger. "While I concede Tufail 's thesis (2003) that Holiday received his instructions from Carroll and created his illustrations to reflect Carroll's cryptic messages and allusions, I contend that the interpretations given to the words we know so well by so many illustrators over a period in excess of 130 years continue to keep the Snark alive. Furthermore, it is my personal belief that Holiday managed to slip in a few interpretations of his own even though Carroll approved of the end result." (Doug Howick: The Hiihijig of the Bijtcheb, Knight Letter #28, Summer 2009) Perhaps Tufail and Howick both are right. There is more: "The 'clouds' - or what at first glance appear to be clouds, are another item of considerable interest. If these are indeed supposed to represent clouds, then they are remarkably poor renditions (and Holiday was by no means either a poor, nor slipshod artist). Rather any close examination of this aspect of the illustration leads the observer to think that this background to the Bellman is actually a map, complete with rivers. contrast to the map Bellman presents to his admiring crew." (John Tufail, The Illuminated Snark , 2004) As Henry Holiday in his Snark illustrations frequently alluded to works of father&son Gheeraerts, John Tufail's Illuminated Snark gave me the idea to search for a Gheeraerts painting in which a map is shown . John reckoned, that the clouds in Holiday's front cover illustration may be part of a map. I think that this possibility cannot be excluded. John's assumption then drew my attention to the Ditchley portrait. (The Ditchley portrait again helped me to find sources for Holiday's illustration to the back cover of Carroll's book as well.) 2013-12: Evidence supporting of John Tufail's thesis: www.doylenewyork.com/asp/fullcatalogue.asp?salelot=13BP04+++553+&refno=++953647&image=0 (see also: groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/carrolliana/conversations/topics/358 )

In Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark , the intertextuality of the poem is paralleled by the interpictoriality of Henry Holiday's illustrations: Here Henry Holiday reinterprets Marcus Gheeraerts I+II. The image above shows Henry Holiday's illustration to the chapter The Banker's Fate . (A small part of the left side has been removed in order to achieve a 4:3 ratio. The largest size is 5696 x 4352 pixels.) To Holiday's illustration I added images from which, in my opinion, he had borrowed shapes and concepts: (1) Under the Banker's arm: * Horizontally compressed segment of The Image Breakers (1566-1568) aka Allegory of Iconoclasm , an etching by Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder (British Museum, Dept. of Print and Drawings, 1933.1.1..3, see also Edward Hodnett: Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder, Utrecht 1971, pp. 25-29). I mirrored the "nose" about a horizontal axis (yellow frame). (2) Under the Beaver's paw (mirror views): * [top]: Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger: Catherine Killigrew , Lady Jermyn (1614) * [bottom, mirror view]: Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger: Mary Throckmorton , Lady Scudamore (1615)

513 · · He was black in the face, and they scarcely could trace 514 · · · · The least likeness to what he had been: 515 · · While so great was his fright that his waistcoat turned white- 516 · · · · A wonderful thing to be seen! This is probably one of the strongest examples for resemblances between graphical elements in Henry Holiday's illustrations (1876, cut by Joseph Swain) and graphical elements in another image. In this case the images are [left]: The Banker after his encounter with the Bandersnatch , depicted in a segment of Henry Holiday 's illustration to The Banker's Fate in Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark (scanned from an 1876 edition of the book) and [right]: a horizontally compressed copy of The Image Breakers (1566-1568) aka Allegory of Iconoclasm , an etching by Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder (British Museum, Dept. of Print and Drawings, 1933.1.1..3, see also Edward Hodnett: Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder , Utrecht 1971, pp. 25-29). I mirrored the "nose" about a horizontal axis.

513 · · He was black in the face, and they scarcely could trace 514 · · · · The least likeness to what he had been: 515 · · While so great was his fright that his waistcoat turned white- 516 · · · · A wonderful thing to be seen! This is probably one of the strongest examples for resemblances between graphical elements in Henry Holiday's illustrations (1876, cut by Joseph Swain) and graphical elements in another image. Sometimes Holiday mirrored his pictorial quotes: Here Holiday vertically flipped the "nose" of Gheeraert's "head". I flipped it back. 2011-12-12 2014-02-22 As for the image on the top of this page: [left]: The Banker after his encounter with the Bandersnatch, depicted in Henry Holiday's illustration (woodcut by Joseph Swain for block printing) to the chapter "The Banker's Fate" in Lewis Carroll's "The Hunting of the Snark" (scanned from an 1876 edition of the book) [right]: a redrawn and horizontally compressed and reproduction of "The Image Breakers" (1566-1568) aka "Allegory of Iconoclasm", an etching by Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder (British Museum, Dept. of Print and Drawings, 1933.1.1..3, see also Edward Hodnett: Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder, Utrecht 1971, pp. 25-29). Also I flipped the "nose" vertically. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 Version, 2000x2000: www.ipernity.com/doc/goetzkluge/36260048