Götz Kluge's photos with the keyword: Oxford

upper inset: Henry Holiday's depiction of the Billiard marker in Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark (1876). background: Henry George Liddell (painted by Sir Hubert von Herkomer in 1891) . Liddell was Carroll's (Dodgson's) superior in Christ Church, Oxford. As for the time line, of course Holiday could not have alluded to this painting. lower inset: The comparison shows Henry Holiday's first depiction (draft) of the Billiard marker in Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark . The face on the right side is Henry George Liddell's face at a youger age. The image (right side; from a portrait by George Cruikshan) shows Liddell at age 28. Such a clear resemblance of Holiday's draft of the Billiard marker to Carroll's boss perhaps was a bit too risky for Carroll. The similarity wasn't sufficiently deniable. In the final illustration the resemblance is much weaker, but the asymmetry of the eyes and eyebrows still is there.

The left picture is a segment from an print which shows the burning of Thomas Cranmer . The right picture is a +135° rotated detail from Henry Holiday's illustration to the final chapter of Lewis Carroll' s The Hunting of the Snark, In "The annotaded ... Snark", Martin Gardner wrote about Henry Holiday's illustration to the last chapter of Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark : "Thousands of readers must have glanced at this drawing without noticing (though they may have shivered with subliminal perception) the huge, almost transparent head of the Baker, abject terror on his features, as a giant beak (or is it a claw?) seizes his wrist." · · · · 021 · · There was one who was famed for the number of things · · · · 022 · · · · He forgot when he entered the ship: · · · · 023 · · His umbrella, his watch, all his jewels and rings, · · · · 024 · · · · And the clothes he had bought for the trip. · · · · 025 · · He had forty-two boxes , all carefully packed, · · · · 026 · · · · With his name painted clearly on each: · · · · 027 · · But, since he omitted to mention the fact, · · · · 028 · · · · They were all left behind on the beach. · · · · 029 · · The loss of his clothes hardly mattered, because · · · · 030 · · · · He had seven coats on when he came, · · · · 031 · · With three pairs of boots --but the worst of it was, · · · · 032 · · · · He had wholly forgotten his name. · · · · 033 · · He would answer to "Hi!" or to any loud cry, · · · · 034 · · · · Such as " Fry me! " or " Fritter my wig! " · · · · 035 · · To "What-you-may-call-um!" or "What-was-his-name!" · · · · 036 · · · · But especially "Thing-um-a-jig!" · · · · 037 · · While, for those who preferred a more forcible word, · · · · 038 · · · · He had different names from these: · · · · 039 · · His intimate friends called him " Candle-ends ," · · · · 040 · · · · And his enemies " Toasted-cheese ." · · · · 041 · · "His form is ungainly--his intellect small--" · · · · 042 · · · · (So the Bellman would often remark) · · · · 043 · · "But his courage is perfect! And that, after all, · · · · 044 · · · · Is the thing that one needs with a Snark." · · · · 045 · · He would joke with hyenas, returning their stare · · · · 046 · · · · With an impudent wag of the head : · · · · 047 · · And he once went a walk, paw-in-paw, with a bear , · · · · 048 · · · · "Just to keep up its spirits," he said. · · · · 049 · · He came as a Baker: but owned, when too late-- · · · · 050 · · · · And it drove the poor Bellman half-mad-- · · · · 051 · · He could only bake Bridecake--for which, I may state, · · · · 052 · · · · No materials were to be had. That is, there were no brides in the crew.

This was my first image showing Henry Holiday's depiction of the Billiard marker in Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark (1876). The face in color and in the background is Henry George Liddell 's face (painted by Sir Hubert von Herkomer in 1891). Liddell was Carroll's (Dodgson's) superior in Christ Church, Oxford. In this image, I had been fooling around a bit: I gave Liddell the Billiard marker's wig. And I gave Liddel's chin back to the Billiard marker. I am not hiding anything: The red dots indicate my manipulations, and in the lower part of the image you can see the unmanipulated elements. Later I discovered, that the comparison between Liddell at age 28 and a draft by Holiday's of the Billiard marker yielded a much stronger resemblance: Perhaps Carroll/Dodgson did not accept such an obvious resemblance. So Holiday finally showed an older Billiard marker with a wig (which slipped a bit out of position) . Holiday also chopped off the Billard marker's chin, but left its shadow in his illustration. That is no mistake. Thus, the real Liddell would not really be able to find himself depicted as the Billiard marker playing foul in the Snark . However, the shadow just could be a bow tie. Who knows?

The comparison shows (left side) a reproduction of Henry Holiday's draft of the Billiard marker for an illustration to Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark (1876) and a redrawn detail (right side) from a portrait by George Cruikshan of Henry George Liddell's face. Liddell was Carroll's (Dodgson's) superior in Christ Church, Oxford. The portrait by George Cruikshan shows Liddell at age 28. The resemblance of Holiday's draft of the Billiard marker to Carroll's boss perhaps was a bit too risky for Carroll. The similarity wasn't sufficiently deniable. In the final illustration Holiday was more cautious: He gave an older Liddell a wig (which slipped a bit out of position) and chopped of his chin.

[right]: Henry Holiday's depiction of the Billiard marker in Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark . The face in color is Henry George Liddell's face (by Hubert von Herkomer) . Liddell was Carroll's (Dodgson's) superior in Christ Church, Oxford. (In the image I wrote "George Henry Liddell". But I am to lazy to correct that mistake now.) [left]: The left image shows Holiday's draft for the right picture and an image depicting Liddell at age 28. That clear resemblance in Holiday's draft of the Billiard marker to Carroll's boss perhaps was a bit too much for Carroll. In the right picture the resemblance is weaker, but the asymmetry of the eyes and eyebrows still is there. In that final illustration Holiday was more cautious: He gave an older Liddell a wig (which slipped a bit out of position) and chopped of his chin.

Photographic self portrait by Lewis Carroll, and its inclusion into an illustration by Henry Holiday to Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark . In the drafts and in Holiday's drawing I didn't see that structure. [top]: Henry Holiday: vectorized segment of an illustration (cut by Joseph Swain) to The Beaver's Lesson in Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark (1876) [left]: Original detail [center]: Low pass filtered detail [right]: Photographic self portrait by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll, May 1875) displayed in mirror view. (Credits for the photo: Watts Gallery, Compton, Guildford) Perhaps Joseph Swain (the cutter) played a bigger role in this allusion&citation game. I think that C. L. Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) knew about Henry Holiday's allusions. There even may have been a cooperation in combining pictorial and textual allusions . But how can we be sure that Carroll/Dodgson knew about the "hidden Carroll" and the provoking simulacrum (based on a fold in the suit) in that picture? This comparison also shows, how low pass filtering (blurring) can help. It removes unimportant details in a similar way as our eye/brain "removes" the single dots in a dithered image. In 2009 I initially used the illustrations in the Snark version of Ebooks Adelaide . Due to their low resolution they were blurred renderings of Holiday's illustrations already. Without the blurring I perhaps would not have noticed the first allusion which I found in December 2008.