Henry Holiday in the 1870s.
ewis Carroll and the artist, illustrator and designer Henry Holiday first met in Oxford in mid-1870. Most probably their initial meeting occurred at the house of their mutual friend the Rev. George William Kitchin (1827-1912), Christ Church lecturer and father of the outstanding child-model and photographic sitter (Alexandra) Xie Kitchin.
Holiday then invited Carroll to visit his home, which was at that time 5 Marlborough Road, St. John's Wood, north London. This Lewis Carroll subsequently did, for five days between Wednesday 6 and Monday 11 July that same year. Their most important shared activities included wet-plate photography and sketching, with a number of child and adult subjects, including Holiday's only child Winifred Holiday, 1865-1949.
Left: The sitters for Holiday's watercolour, The Duet (exhibited in 1878), were Xie Kitchin and Winifred Holiday. Right: Holiday's front cover design for Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark (1876).
The two men quickly became firm and lifelong friends. Carroll spent "a week or more" at Holiday's invitation, at the family's new home, Oak Tree House in Hampstead, north London. He gave Holiday the task of illustrating his nonsense poem, The Hunting of the Snark, a task which Holiday performed memorably. The generosity and skill of this new friend led bachelor Lewis Carroll to reward Holiday with a sumptuously produced photographic album, of some twenty-four plates, including more of Winifred and her friends. The precious artefact now forms part of the M. L. Parrish Collection at Princeton University, New Jersey, USA. (Carroll Diaries, 7: 400-402 and n.658).
Links to Related Material
- A Brief Biography of Henry Holiday, 1839-1927
- Henry Holiday's illustrations for The Hunting of the Snark
Bibliography
Carroll, Lewis. Lewis Carroll Diaries. Private Journals of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Ed. Edward Wakeling. Vol. 7. : Lewis Carroll Society, 2001.
Created 24 January 2023