Continuing on from THIS introduction, here’s another case of Steadman taking Tenniel’s art to the cleaners, so to speak. We have some rather exquisite line-work, combined with the usual touches of vulgarity and madness, altho rather subtley done this time. The white king’s face gives it away, though.
Original art:
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/aliceinwonderland/images/e/eb/Lion_unicorn_tenniel.jpg
Actually quite clever, as the figures represented diplomatic heads of the “Lion” and the “Unicorn,” i.e. England and Scotland, two bitter adversaries for hundreds of years. Indeed, this section of Through the Looking Glass is a direct allegory to the tension between nations, also reduced to an old nursery rhyme:
The lion and the unicorn
Were fighting for the crown
The lion beat the unicorn
All around the town.
Some gave them white bread,
And some gave them brown;
Some gave them plum cake
and drummed them out of town.
But all this kind of reemphasizes to me how versatile the Alice books could be, working as kids lit, a study in contemporary politics, wild and creative fiction, and a deep exploration of dreams and madness itself.
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