"The Beggar Maid"
"The Beggar Maid"
Woodcut
Image size: 5" x 6 3/4" - Edition 80 prints signed and numbered, 12 artist proofs
This is Alice Pleasance Liddell, who is the real live "Alice in Wonderland." The story of "Alice in Wonderland" was made-up and told to Alice on her birthday by Charles Dodgson / Lewis Carroll.
On 4 July 1862, in a rowing boat traveling on the Isis from Folly Bridge, Oxford to Godstow for a picnic outing, 10-year-old Alice asked Charles Dodgson (who wrote under the pen name Lewis Carroll) to entertain her and her sisters, Edith (aged 8) and Lorina (13), with a story.
As the Reverend Robinson Duckworth rowed the boat, Dodgson regaled the girls with fantastic stories of a girl, named Alice, and her adventures after she fell into a rabbit-hole. The story was not unlike those Dodgson had spun for the sisters before, but this time Liddell asked Mr. Dodgson to write it down for her. He promised to do so but did not get around to the task for some months. He eventually presented her with the manuscript of Alice's Adventures Under Ground in November 1864.
In the meantime, Dodgson had decided to rewrite the story as a possible commercial venture. Probably with a view to canvassing his opinion, Dodgson sent the manuscript of Under Ground to a friend, the author George MacDonald, in the spring of 1863.[8] The MacDonald children read the story and loved it, and this response probably persuaded Dodgson to seek a publisher. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, with illustrations by John Tenniel, was published in 1865, under the name Lewis Carroll. A second book about the character Alice, Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, followed in 1871. In 1886, a facsimile of Alice's Adventures Under Ground, the original manuscript that Dodgson had given Liddell, was published.
Dodgson was teaching at Oxford University where Alice's father, Henry Liddell was the Dean of Christ Church,Oxford.
Alice posed for a photograph taken by Dodgson.
An avid "Alice in Wonderland" fan this image was perfect for one of the Christmas woodcut series.
