The Snark, for "The Hunting of the Snark"
Henry Holiday
(English, 1839–1927)
Lewis Carroll
(English, 1832–1898)
1876
Medium/TechniqueGraphite pencil on tracing paper
DimensionsSheet: 20.8 x 19.4 cm (8 3/16 x 7 5/8 in.)
Credit LineJohn H. and Ernestine A. Payne Fund
Accession number55.2304
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Should you be hunting for a snark, this might be helpful. Henry Holiday drew this for the first edition of Lewis Carroll’s Hunting of the Snark, but it never saw print. As Holiday recalled later: "Mr. Dodgson wrote that it was a delightful monster, but that it was inadmissible. All his descriptions of the Boojum [Carroll’s name for the snark] were quite unimaginable, and he wanted the creature to remain so. I assented, of course, though reluctant to dismiss what I am still confident is an accurate representation. I hope that some future Darwin, in a new Beagle, will find the beast, or its remains; if he does, I know he will confirm my drawing."
ProvenanceHarold T. Hartley, England (b. 1851 - d. 1943); Sir Harold Hartley, London, England (b. 1878 - d. 1972); 1955, purchased from Hartley by the MFA . (Accession Date: April 14,1955)
Henry Holiday
