Instruction: pick one of the letters linked below for in-depth reading and look at some of the examples of Carroll's art (vs. his illustrator Furniss's art), either as given below or in the box on reserve in the Lilly Reading Room. I will be available Tuesday, 9:30 to about 1.
Carroll hired an illustrator for the humorous magazine Punch to illustrate his novel, Harry Furniss. The Lilly documents describe their long and often conflicted collaboration. If you know Alice in Wonderland, you know, too, that illustrations (in Alice's case by John Tenniel) are an integral part of Carroll’s vision. While Carroll liked some of Furniss”s work, he found fault with many details in the drawings he was sent. In a letter written on November 24, 1886, he complains that Furniss’s sketches, while “very graphic & suggestive,” are not on a track towards realizing a “comic result.” Things come to head when he criticizes Furniss's handling of Sylvie, who he claims looks more like 15 than 12 (Carroll's preferred age for girls). Assuming that he needs to look for a new illustrator, Carroll announces, in a letter dated August 26, 1889, that he plans to write an essay on "Authors' Difficulties with Illustrators," though he also tries to embarrass Furniss by pointing out that Tenniel responded to criticism by simply redoing the image (note: this letter is incomplete and simply breaks off). But a few days later, on August 30, 1889, things are hunky-dory again: Furniss wants to continue with the collaboration and Carrolls exults over the "now-so-happily ended controversy." On November 21, 1889, Carroll unfolds what he wants to pay for what. A year later, on August 8, 1890, he's complaining again (Furniss uses too many lines and this will affect the printing process). Then, however, on August 19, 1892, he suddenly can't get enough of Furniss again and is wailing for more. Take one of these letters and try to decipher it, then look at one of the examples provided below or look at the full collection at the Lilly.
The sketches Carroll made and the comments he sent to Furniss reveal an astonishing amount of micro-managing but also his considerable talent as a draughtsman. Here's an excerpt from notes dealing with a scene in which the mentor of the fairy children, The Professor, wakes "the Other Professor" (who is snoring heavily while bent over a book, which he does repeatedly in the story):
In later chapters, Carroll is likewise unfailingly vigilant, offering countless suggestions to Furniss. Working on the what he thought would be his masterpiece, he left nothing to chance.
Here is the frog vignette Carrol was quite worried about in his correspondence with Furniss. It appears close to the end of Sylvie and Bruno Concluded, the second part of his novel. Here the "Other Professor" tells "The Pig-Tale," about a pig sitting by a "ruined water-pump," being distraught over its apparent inability to jump. A frog that wanderes by promises to teach the pig how to jump; when the pig does jump, he bangs against the water-pump and dies.
But Furniss is also able to draw a line in the sand when Carroll's creatures--more uncanny and perverse than simply "naughty"--aresimply too outlandish (Carroll's term) for his more commercially directedl imagination. He is a cartoonist, after all. Consider Carroll's draft sketch for the "changed crocodile" (chapter XVI of the first part of Sylvie and Bruno), a crocodile shortened by the professor for the children and then lengthened again to more than "two times and half its original size," all "just because."
The serpentlike crocodile standing on its body in chapter XVI appears transformed into the epitome of Victorian respectability and/or masculinity--a suave gentleman about town rather than the exaggerated, prehistoric-looking, phallic creature in Carroll's sketch that seems to have just emerged from the original slime:
What were Carroll's concerns? How does he treat his illustrator? Are his own drawings better than those done by the professional illustrator (Furniss was a cartoonist fo Punch Magazine and very well-known)? What does Furniss retain and what does he discard?
ReplyDeleteCarroll was concerned about acuratly representing his characters and the idea he had in mind for the story. Most notably, Carroll seemed concerned that the images were illustrated correctly so that they better relayed the message and tone he was trying to get across in the message of the story. Underlying symbols of sexuality and crude imagery seemed to be represented here- especially in the crocodile illustration shown above. I think Carroll also had concerns with formatting and size issues of the pictures as hinted in some of his later letters.
I don't think Carroll's own drawings were better than Furniss's. I think Furniss's drawings look more proffessional than Carroll's, and that's why he needed him for the publication process, but Carroll obviously micromanaged the entire creative process, and probably would have rather created the illustrations himself.
Furniss's interpretation of the drawings seem a little more "culturally accepted"- i.e. the cartoonist format of illustrations are very common of the time in terms of magazine cartoons. He also incorporated Victorian style and dress into the fantastical characters, making them probably a little more relatable/ accepted by readers.