1) Carroll was an acknowledged admirer of the Bro-hood, and had Arthur Hughes' 'The Lady with/of the Lilacs' hanging in his rooms at Christ Church.
2) His drawings of Alice in the AAUG manuscript display a possible Rossettian influence: dark, flowing hair, a melancholic facial expression. His (slightly naive) pen and ink pictures also remind me somewhat of Rossetti's book illustrations such as 'Goblin Market'. This might be stretching it a bit too much, but the MS's title page, with its Gothic lettering and scrolling ivy, is reminiscent of Victorian medievalist designs.
3) Carroll moved to Christ Church in 1851; William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones started at Exeter College in 1852. I'd be interested to know if their paths ever crossed, or if the mural paintings at the Oxford Union Old Library, painted by Rossetti, Morris and Burne-Jones between 1857 and 1859, had an influence on Carroll, who surely must've visited the Union during his Oxford career. The cathedral at Christ Church also has some stained glass windows by Burne-Jones from 1859.
4) Henry Holiday, illustrator of 'Snark', is today considered an eminent Pre-Raphaelite artist (his drawings and stained glass designs are unmistakably Pre-Raph). He was also good friends with Carroll.
5) As Carroll was a photographer, it would be interesting to draw some parallels with Julia Margaret Cameron, the great 'Pre-Raphaelitist' photographer. Interestingly, Cameron photographed Alice Liddell as Pomona in 1872. Carroll's name is now included alongside those of other Pre-Raph photographers.
6) Tenniel's illustration of the White Knight, the frontispiece of TTLG, is probably a direct reference to a painting by John Millais, 'Sir Isumbras at the Ford'.
7) Carroll photographed portraits of the Rossetti, Millais and Hughes families, as well as John Ruskin, Holman Hunt and Tennyson, all of whom are directly or partially associated with the Pre-Raph Bro-hood.
8) It'd be pretty nifty if I could get away bringing in Jonathan Miller's 'Alice' at some point, as its art direction is overtly Pre-Raphaelite and Victorian. Yes, I love the film that much.
8) I could go on.
I hope no-one who reads this steals my ideas, though. Well, if you do, I can take you to court and this post can be used as evidence against you that they were my ideas first.
Anyway, I would LOVE to write about this, as it centres around two things I adore more than my own soul. And I also don't think it's a topic that's been explored much. It'd be a lovely way to evoke a very specific aspect of the Victorian era, both literary and artistic, that centred around a sort of poetic medievalist fantasticalism, if that's a valid phrase.Thoughts? Might as well brainstorm with fellow experts.
)
there were several newspaper articles about it though! I expect my uni library has a copy of the catalogue, they always do. I'm also certain that the beautiful exhibition catalogue I keep meaning to get, called The Pre-Raphaelite Lens, has a few photographs by Carroll in it, alongside work by Cameron and Henry Peach Robinson.
It seems one needs only to do a little digging before all sorts of relevant info comes up! There's more stuff out there about Carroll and the Pre-Raphs than I first thought! I particularly like that link between Ruskin and 'Hiawatha'.
