Among the many thousands of illustrations produced by the Brothers Dalziel, images of animals abound. Everything from frogs, cockatoos, and koalas, to starfish and sunflowers, are represented, reflecting the Victorian love of Natural History, and the many popular periodicals, dedicated to the subject, published throughout the nineteenth century.
During the Summer 2019 series of workshops, school pupils had a chance to explore some of these amazing animal images, and were asked to use their artistic and imaginative talents to create collages of human-animal hybrids.
Human-animal hybrid figures appeared frequently in Victorian popular culture, especially in children’s fiction: most famously, the many strange and fabulous anthropomorphic beings in Lewis Carroll’s Alice books, which were, of course, illustrated by the Brothers Dalziel, after John Tenniel. The gallery below showcases some of the marvellous and bizarre creations made by students from Plashet school (you can click on individual images for a full view). Collages by students from Brighton Aldridge Community Academy (BACA) can be viewed here.
