Above art by Matthew Cruickshank.
It's great that the people over at Google are appreciating Sir John Tenniel on the occasion of his 200th birthday. Tenniel was the go-to editorial cartoonist for Punch Magazine for fifty years, and is best remembered today as the illustrator for Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland books.
The man was an institution. He was one of most famous Victorian illustrators. He received a knighthood in 1893.
So why, when Google honors him this day with one of their "Google Doodles" on their home page -- WHY -- don't they use a piece of Tenniel's OWN artwork?
Instead, Google contacted Matthew Cruickshank to draw an image in Tenniel-style. Here are some process shots from his blog:
See? He's good. But why not give Sir John T. his own day with his own art? Curiouser and curiouser!
Prof Prem raj Pushpakaran writes --- 2020 marks the 200th birth year of John Tenniel!!!
ReplyDeleteI get your frustration, but... Google Doodle's thing is always to draw a new doodle, even for iconic artists like Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, Charles Addams, Bob Ross, or Erich Ohser. It's a bit of patronage for current artists, and of course to work the 'Google' in there somewhere.
ReplyDeleteIIRC the only exceptions are when they take old movie footage for actors (like Charlie Chaplin) and make mini-little movies out of it.