The War of the Worlds illustrated by Henrique Alvim-Corrêa

A black and white charcoal illustration of the Martian cylinders attacking houses in a suburban street, by Henrique Alvim-Corrêa, 1906.
© British Library (Public Domain)

About

This is an illustration from the famous science fiction book The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. It was written in 1898, and this picture comes from the French translation of the book.

The illustration shows a group of aliens, Martians from Mars, destroying some buildings whilst people hide.

You can see some more of Henrique Alvim Corrêa’s illustrations on the British Library’s website.

Things to think about…

  • Has the artist succeeded in making the Martians look scary?
  • When The War of the Worlds was published, the British Empire was a powerful force in the world. What effect do you think setting an invasion story in England would have had on the readers at the time?

Museum's description

Henrique Alvim Corrêa (1876–1910) was a Brazilian artist working in Belgium at the end of the 19th century, specialising in military and science fiction illustration. His best-known work is this illustrated French translation of H G Wells’s The War of the Worlds, for which only 500 copies were produced.

Corrêa uses sharply contrasting tones, with shadow, spotlighting and few people. The image of the building with eyes is not unlike the key motifs of surreal art decades later.

Date

1906

Artist

Henrique Alvim-Corrêa

From

British Library