Richard Doyle and John Tenniel

Richard Doyle (Virgo 1824-1833) was one of the most popular
 Victorian illustrators of faerie stories.

 As a boy he was captivated by the 'St George and the Dragon' theme and became regarded as the supreme master of dragon illustrations, giants, pixies, witches and nature spirits. 

He loved collecting obscure foreign folk legends, especially those featuring strange and supernatural creatures.

He had no art training but always possessed an extraordinary power of fanciful and imaginative drawing.

His boyhood fascination with faerie stories
 stayed with him all his life. 

Richard Doyle's masterpiece was undoubtedly 
 In Fairyland, a series of Pictures from the Elf World, 
with a poem by William Allingham,   
and published in time for Christmas 1869 (dated 1870).

 Doyle was given a completely free hand. 

The folio was richly bound in green cloth, and has been described as one of the finest examples of Victorian book production.

 

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John Tenniel (Pisces 1820-1914)

This famous Victorian artist is remembered today

 as the illustrator of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871). 

The books have been illustrated countless times but for many people the original drawings by Tenniel have never been surpassed. His images epitomise the characters in the books. Tenniel successfully captured the author’s intended vision.

  

 He was a skilful artist from an early age, and later studied at the Royal Academy Schools, but became dissatisfied with the teaching there, and decided to follow a more independent line.  

 

  

 He declared that he never used models, or nature for the figure, or drapery, or anything else, but had a wonderful memory of observation for anything he saw.

 

-The Golden Age of Children's Book Illustration & wakeling.demon.co.uk-