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W. R. Hill: Alice in Wonderland

William Robert Hill: Alice in Wonderland, (c1870)
(That magic lantern slide formerly shown in nationalmediamuseumblog.wordpress.com/alice-in-wonderland-lewis-carroll-anniversary now has been replaced by a slide by Sir John Tenniel.)

2014-10-28: Previously, Tenniel was credited for the work.
Tweets on whether that is correct:
twitter.com/Bonnetmaker/status/525660964700848129
· Goetz Kluge ‏@Bonnetmaker Oct 24
@mediamuseum: Is the "Alics in Wonderland" illustration in nationalmediamuseumblog.wordpress.com/2012/06/28/alice-in-wonderland-lewis-carroll-anniversary … really by Tenniel? [...]
· Nat. Media Museum ‏@mediamuseum Oct 27
@Bonnetmaker: We've checked and the illustration should be credited to WR Hill. ow.ly/DnADN . Thanks for your tweet - we'll correct
· Goetz Kluge ‏@Bonnetmaker Oct 27
@mediamuseum: Could it be that you published the image in mirror view? Hill may have borrowed a bit from Tenniel and Warren.
· Nat. Media Museum ‏@mediamuseum Oct 28
@Bonnetmaker: yes - mirror view is a possibility as the slide may have been scanned that way. More info on Hill ow.ly/DrSuJ

The full URL: www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/collection/cinematography/lanternslides/collectionitem.aspx?id=1951-305/5
That page says: "Ref Number: 1951-305/5
Creator: Hill, W R (c. 1830-1901)
Date: 1876
Description: A hand-painted magic lantern slide depicting a scene from 'Alice in Wonderland' painted by W R Hill in 1876 and shown at the Royal Polytechnic Institution, London. // The slide shows Alice standing in a garden. // The Royal Polytechnic Institution in Regent Street, London, was renowned for its spectacular magic lantern shows employing as many as six huge lanterns projecting large, hand-painted slides eight inches (20.3 cm) by five inches (12.7 cm)."

www.cinematheque.fr/uk/museum-and-collections/actualite-collections/dons-acquisitions/pilgrim-progress.html
"One of the chromatropes in the collection of La Cinémathèque française bears a handwritten inscription on the wood frame: 'Painted by Hill, artist to the Royal Polytechnic'. At a young age, the Londoner W. R. Hill (1823-1901) entered into apprenticeship with the painter and lanternist Henry Childe, considered the official inventor of the chromatrope and 'dissolving views'. Hill and Childe worked together at the Royal Polytechnic until Hill struck out on his own in 1867 and painted alone for John Henry Pepper, director of the Royal Polytechnic, plates depicting a voyage on the Rhine. Hill was certainly the most talented painter on glass of his time[4], the author of, for example, the mechanised plate Angels on the Fields of Bethlehem, in which seven angels beat their wings at different moments and speeds. Thanks to him and to the Royal Polytechnic, the Victorian spectator, immersed in all these natural and supernatural optical illusions, doubtless experienced great delight in the double feeling of realism and illusion. Moreover, that is what accounts for the strangeness of these images, about which it can be said that, in fact, they have no stability between the real and the imaginary."

www.slides.uni-trier.de/person/index.php?id=6002910
William Robert HILL (W. R. Hill) in 1897
Portrait photo from OMLJ, December 1897
Slide painter and proprietor of slide making business ...
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4 comments

Götz Kluge said:

Seemingly W. R. Hill got inspired by B. E. Warren (and both perhaps borrowed from Tenniel).
Who inspired who?

Alice & Cheshire Cat by Tenniel(?), Forest by Warren
10 years ago

Götz Kluge said:

In the meantime several links seem to have changed.

Images like www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/collection/cinematography/lanternslides/collectionitem.aspx?id=1951-305/2 are still there. But www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/collection/cinematography/lanternslides/collectionitem.aspx?id=1951-305/5 is missing. Perhaps they didn't like the object Alice was looking at :-)
9 years ago

raingirl said:

This is fascinating! Thanks for all the information. I love Alice in Wonderland and have a fascimile of the original book given to Alice.
4 years ago