"Can you play Croquet," said the Queen (plate, facing page 68) from Alice in Wonderland
Marie Laurencin
French, 1883–1956
1930
A lithographic plate from Marie Laurencin’s 1930 illustrated edition of Alice in Wonderland, in which the artist adapts Carroll’s scene into a softly modernist, hand-colored image that emphasizes mood over literal detail.
You'd be struck by the airy, sketchlike cross-hatching and muted pastel washes—two gently rounded, fashionably dressed women rendered with simplified forms and a decorative, lyrical rhythm against sparse grassy strokes.
The plate shows how Laurencin brought avant-garde painting into book illustration, introducing a distinctive feminine, lyrical modernism that reshaped how classic stories could be visually interpreted and felt.
Medium
One from an illustrated book with six lithographs
Dimensions
composition (irreg.): 6 7/8 × 9 13/16" (17.5 × 25 cm); page: 9 5/8 × 11 7/16" (24.4 × 29 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Mrs. Stanley Resor
Accession
418.1958.4
Palette
Exhibitions
