This study deals with the early works of the influential illustrator, Sir John Tenniel, and with the ways in which the great debate of the 1840s in favor of the creation of an English school of history painting manifested itself in his art. Indeed, the historicist revival would be the driving force behind virtually all of his artwork throughout the whole of his life, including the work by which he is best known, his illustrations for Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.