Snark Gallery

Letter by C.L. Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) to Henry Holiday. The two lines at the bottom are by Henry Holiday. Source: www.pbagalleries.com/images/lot/1859/185970_0.jpg in www.pbagalleries.com/view-auctions/catalog/id/384/lot/119222/Original-drawing-by-Lewis-Carroll-in-illustration-of-The-Hunting-of-the-Snark-and-an-autograph-letter-from-him-to-the-book-s-illustrator-critiquing-his-designs-bound-into-a-copy-of-the-book "... The letter, dated Jan. 4, 1876, highlights Carroll’s and Holiday’s different artistic vision for the book, and critiques Holiday’s illustrations for the work both generally and in particular ..." Snapshot 2016-05-26 Processed (GIMP): high pass filtering and contrast enhancement The note is: «L.C. forgot that "the Snark" is a tragedy and [should] on no account be made jovial. h.h.»

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 )

[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

Henry Holiday's depiction of the Bellman in fhe front cover illustration to Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark and Father Time from an allegorical English School painting (ca. 1610) depicting Queen Elizabeth I at Old Age . That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold; What hath quench'd them hath given me fire. Hark! Peace! It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman, Which gives the stern'st good-night. He is about it: The doors are open; and the surfeited grooms Do mock their charge with snores: I have drugg'd their possets, That death and nature do contend about them, Whether they live or die.

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From his eeriest illustration to The Hunting of the Snark , Henry Holiday alluded to an monstrance-like simulacrum in John Martin's The Bard . [left] Henry Holiday: Illustration (1876) to chapter The Vanishing in Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark , detail [right] John Martin: The Bard (ca. 1817), mirror view of a horizontally compressed detail.

recto, unframed deliver.odai.yale.edu/content/id/594cf828-e6b8-4ec4-bf14-cac45880305d/format/3 ===================== John Martin: The Bard ca. 1817 Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection collections.britishart.yale.edu/vufind/Record/1671616 : "Based on a Thomas Gray poem, inspired by a Welsh tradition that said that Edward I had put to death any bards he found, to extinguish Welsh culture; the poem depicts the escape of a single bard. In mydailyartdisplay.wordpress.com/the-bard-by-john-martin , "Jonathan" connects the painting to the poem The Bard written by by Thomas Gray in 1755: · · ... · · On a rock, whose haughty brow · · Frowns o'er cold Conway's foaming flood, · · Robed in the sable garb of woe · · With haggard eyes the Poet stood; · · ... · · "Enough for me: with joy I see · · The diff'rent doom our fates assign. · · Be thine Despair and sceptred Care; · · To triumph and to die are mine." · · He spoke, and headlong from the mountain's height · · Deep in the roaring tide he plunged to endless night. · · ... The poem and the painting may have been an inspiration to Lewis Carroll and Henry Holiday in The Hunting of the Snark: · · 545 · · Erect and sublime, for one moment of time. · · 546· · · · In the next, that wild figure they saw · · 547· · (As if stung by a spasm) plunge into a chasm, · · 548· · · · While they waited and listened in awe. · See also: Henry Holiday's Snark illustrations and John Martin's "The Bard": - www.academia.edu/9885417/The_Bellman_and_the_Bard - www.academia.edu/9923718/Henry_Holidays_Monsterspotting - www.academia.edu/10251338/Monsters_and_Monstrances - www.academia.edu/12586460/The_Bard_the_Baker_and_the_Butcher

[left] John Martin: The Bard (ca. 1817), detail [right] Henry Holiday: Illustration (1876) to chapter The Beaver's Lesson in Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark , detail

[main image]: John Martin: The Bard (ca. 1817) , by GIMP: contrast enhanced in the rock area & light areas delated. [inset] Henry Holiday: Illustration (1876) to chapter The Beaver's Lesson in Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark , detail In mydailyartdisplay.wordpress.com/the-bard-by-john-martin , "Jonathan" connects the painting to the poem The Bard written by by Thomas Gray in 1755. Inspired by a Welsh tradition that said that Edward I had put to death any bards he found, to extinguish Welsh culture; the poem depicts the escape of a single bard: · · ... · · On a rock, whose haughty brow · · Frowns o'er cold Conway's foaming flood, · · Robed in the sable garb of woe · · With haggard eyes the Poet stood; · · ... · · A Voice, as of the Cherub-Choir, · · Gales from blooming Eden bear; · · And distant warblings lessen on my ear, · · That lost in long futurity expire. · · Fond impious Man, think'st thou, yon sanguine cloud, · · Rais'd by thy breath, has quench'd the Orb of day? · · To-morrow he repairs the golden flood, · · And warms the nations with redoubled ray. · · "Enough for me: With joy I see · · The different doom our Fates assign. · · Be thine Despair, and scept'red Care, · · To triumph, and to die, are mine." · · He spoke, and headlong from the mountain's height · · Deep in the roaring tide he plung'd to endless night. · · ... Full text: www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=bapo spenserians.cath.vt.edu/TextRecord.php?action=GET&tex... www.english.upenn.edu/~mgamer/Etexts/gray.bard.html www.google.com/search?q="A+Voice,+as+of+the+Cherub-Choir" The poem and the painting may have been an inspiration to Lewis Carroll and Henry Holiday in The Hunting of the Snark . This is about The Vanishing of The Baker : · · 537 · · "There is Thingumbob shouting!" the Bellman said, · · 538 · · · · "He is shouting like mad, only hark! · · 539 · · He is waving his hands, he is wagging his head, · · 540 · · · · He has certainly found a Snark!" · · 541 · · They gazed in delight, while the Butcher exclaimed · · 542 · · · · "He was always a desperate wag!" · · 543 · · They beheld him--their Baker--their hero unnamed-- · · 544 · · · · On the top of a neighbouring crag. · · 545 · · Erect and sublime, for one moment of time. · · 546 · · · · In the next, that wild figure they saw · · 547 · · (As if stung by a spasm) plunge into a chasm, · · 548 · · · · While they waited and listened in awe. Album: John Martin