Tolkien, the Artist

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

I was wondering if any of the famous illustrators of Tolkien's written work have acknowledged any inspiration from Tolkien's paintings? Did his own efforts to illustrate his work inspire the other artists or was it simply his prose which stimulated their creative work?

I haven't finished the book yet, so I don't know if references will come that answer this question, Bb; I will try to keep it in mind as I continue.

davem mentioned the drawing 'Tumble Hill'; I was struck by its similarity to the painting of Fangorn (Taur-na-Fúin, #54 ) that adorns my copy of TTT. On both, we see a part of a wood that consists almost entirely of tree trunks, allowing us to look through and beyond them, though the background is more or less insignificant to the picture. The fact that he pictures very tall trees tells us that they were obviously old enough to have grown high. I wonder of there was more to his concentration on the trunks than a sense of history. I'm reminded of the last photo taken of JRRT, next to the Pinus Nigra in the Botanical Gardens in Oxford - which, incidentally, I saw and had my picture taken with last summer. On that photo we see only the trunk of the tree as well.

A collage of little drawings in this first chapter of the book fascinates me - High Life at Gipsy Green (#23). It is atypical for him, as it shows persons, mostly his wife Edith - and that in rather intimate situations such as washing! Nothing spectacular, of course, and shown only as a rear view, but still, I'm sure those were not meant for public viewing! I like the one where she is sitting at the piano. It's interesting that he wrote comments and notes on the page - as if his love for words invades his visual art.

I too find that the second chapter, 'Visions, Myths, and Legends', is more interesting than the real life based drawings in the first chapter. If there are no further posts on this one, let's continue with the next!