J.R.R. Tolkien--Artist and Illustrator The Hobbit-Lord of the Rings

318 Pages·2000·11.38 MB·English

by  John Ronald Reuel

WE HAVE long felt that Tolkien's art deserves to
WE HAVE long felt that Tolkien's art deserves to
be as well known as his writings. The two were The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmaril-
closely linked, and in his paintings and draw- lion. 'The Silmarillion' so styled denotes the mythology
ings he displayed remarkable powers of invention that in all of its stages of writing, The Silmarillion the book
equalled his skill with words. His books have been read first published in 1977. Quotations from The Hobbit
by countless thousands; most of his art, however, has and The Lord of the Rings are from the first editions,
been seen only by a very few. Our purpose in this book but are cited in a manner convenient to readers of any
is to show, as widely as possible, the unsuspected range edition, by chapter for The Hobbit and by book and
of Tolkien's art, and to relate it both to his life and to chapter for The Lord of the Rings as published. When
the writings for which he is most renowned. Our scope quoting from Tolkien's writings we have preferred those
is much broader than that of Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien versions most contemporary with the art under discus-
(first published 1979): we are concerned not only with sion; we have, therefore, made extensive reference to
his most finished or most mature work, but also with his Christopher Tolkien's invaluable History of Middle-
early art, and with preliminary or alternative versions earth, and on occasion to the original manuscripts.
of pictures, which like his manuscripts provide valuable Works by and about Tolkien frequently cited in notes
insights into the ways he thought and worked. How- are identified more fully in the selected bibliography.
ever, we have not attempted a catalogue raisonne. We are very grateful to Christopher Tolkien for ask-
A great deal of Tolkien's art survives. He had an ing us to write this book, and for the many helpful
archivist's soul: he seems to have kept almost every comments and suggestions he made in aid of our labour.
scrap of his art -- sometimes literally scraps, drawn on Our gratitude is due also to other members of the Tol-
whatever paper was at hand. He preserved some of it kien family -- Priscilla, John, Joanna, and Michael
carefully in envelopes, and took out pictures long after George -- for their faith in us and for answering our
he had made them, to add inscriptions and dates of many questions; to Pat and Trevor Reynolds, who went
execution. But it is the rare archivist who does not with us to many of the places in England Tolkien drew,
discard on occasion. We have found, for example, no through nettles and mud, up fire escapes and down cliffs
preliminary drawings for two of the five watercolours to determine precisely where he stood or sat; to Denis
he painted for The Hobbit, and only two sketches pre- Bridoux, especially for his suggestions for chapters z, and
ceding the finished art for Mr. Bliss though one would 6; and to Carl Hostetter, Arden Smith, Patrick Wynne,
expect more; and we know that Tolkien gave away at and Chris Gilson for their expert advice in all matters
least three of his drawings as gifts. Today almost all of linguistic. Judith Priestman and her staff at the Bodleian
his art is preserved with his manuscripts in the Depart- Library, especially Colin Harris, Nicola Pound, and
ment of Western Manuscripts of the Bodleian Library, Martin Maw, Dana Josephson of the Bodleian's conser-
Oxford, or in the Archives and Special Collections vation department, and Charles B. Elston, Archivist of
department of the Marquette University Libraries, Marquette University, were always patient and helpful.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We are indebted also to Mary Butler, our editor at
In this book we have reproduced no work larger HarperCollins, and her assistant, Ali Bailey; and to
than its original size. Among the works selected, we Mary Bailey; Cathleen Blackburn and F.R.Williamson;
have printed in colour nearly all of those originally David Doughan; John Ellison; Mrs Evans, Mrs Clark,
rendered in colour; otherwise, we have described their and Mr Underhill of Gipsy Green; Charles Noad; John
colours in our text. We have described media in order of Rateliff and Janice Coulter; the late Taum Santoski;
execution or of prominence, and have preferred the Eileen Terry; Angela Thompson; Peter Thornton;
more precise term 'coloured pencil' to 'crayon' or Robert Volz; Andrew Wells; the ladies of Eastbury; and
(Tolkien's own preference) 'chalk'. 'Ink' refers to both the staffs of the British Library, the Institute of Archae-
line and wash. When we had a choice between a pub- ology, the Staffordshire Local Record Office, the
lished or an unpublished work of similar quality with Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College, the War-
which to illustrate a point, we preferred the latter, so wick Tourist Office, Westminster University Library,
that more of Tolkien's art could appear in print; at the the Whitby Archives Heritage Centre, and the Williams
same time, we have provided citations to his art repro- College Library. Last but not least, we would like
duced elsewhere, chiefly in Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien. to thank Rayner Unwin for his advice and constant
Out of necessity, we have assumed that readers are encouragement.
Wayne G. Harnmond & Christina Scull
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WE HAVE long felt that Tolkien's art deserves to
familiar at least with Tolkien's major fantasy writings,

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WE HAVE long felt that Tolkien's art deserves to
I Early Work exhibitions, though at one time or another he must have
In Tolkien's story Leaf by Xiggle the title character is a visited at least the British Museum in London and the
painter, but 'not a very successful one, partly because he Ashmolean in Oxford. His daughter Priscilla recalls
had many other things to do.' Niggle 'had a number of going with him in 1955 to galleries in Venice, including
pictures on hand; most of them were too large and an exhibition of Giorgione. Tolkien was moved, she
ambitious for his skill. He was the sort of painter who remembers, by the paintings of Giotto, Fra Filippo
can paint leaves better than trees. He used to spend a Lippi, and Botticelli, but disliked later Italian religious
long time on a single leaf, trying to catch its shape, and art, perhaps because he felt that the artists had used
its sheen, and the glistening of dewdrops on its edges.'1 religious subjects for secular purposes. He also admired
He is often seen as a self-portrait of Tolkien the writer, the skillful portraits of Frans Hals and Van Dyck.6 He
niggling over a passage or phrase, or of Tolkien the himself was never good at drawing figures, except the
philologist, looking closely at an interesting word. comical variety.
But Tolkien was also himself an artist, who painted This memory of Tolkien, albeit a late one, when
and drew despite many demands upon his time, and he was sixty-three, tells us as much about his tastes in
who would struggle through several versions of a pic- art as anything he left in his own words. His letters,
ture, if needed, to capture his inner vision. He was so illustrative in other respects, in this are almost
Niggle-like also in glimpsing, in his mind's eye, far unrevealing. Nor is there much on the subject to be
countries, and forests 'marching over the land', and gleaned from the otherwise excellent biography of
'mountains tipped with snow',-' which he put into Tolkien by Humphrey Carpenter. Carpenter mentions
pictures as well as into words. And he seems to have that as an undergraduate at Oxford Tolkien bought
genuinely believed of himself the criticism he directed Japanese prints for his rooms; but such prints were
at Niggle, that his ambition in art usually exceeded his popular at the time, and do not seem to have had much
talent -- an arguable point, no matter how many times influence on his own art except perhaps to suggest to
he complained that he could not draw.' In his eighty- him, for works such as Glorund Sets Forth to Seeh Turin
one years he made many paintings and drawings, some [47], a simplification of natural forms and the use of
of them from life or nature, but most out of his imagina- flat colour for pattern effect rather than for modelling.
tion, related to his epic 'Silmarillion' mythology or Carpenter also notes that Tolkien once compared his
legendariurn and to his other tales of Middle-earth, The group of schoolfriends, the 'T.C.B.S.', to the Pre-
Hobbit and The Lord of tbe Rings. If some of his pic- Raphaelite Brotherhood': this is more promising, for it
tures were ambitious, none were truly large. Invariably points to an awareness of art in the wide world greater
he worked small, on paper less than a foot in height than previously remarked in Tolkien. He is often
or width, often considerably smaller. And he enjoyed pictured by enthusiasts as having lived a cloistered life,
the work even if he was critical of the results. It was caring for little beyond his stories and the medieval
an integral part of his life which has not been fully languages and literatures that were his professional con-
appreciated, in fact is usually overlooked,' especially in cern. In fact his interests were quite broad. His letters
connection with his books. As Christopher Tolkien, his and his miscellaneous writings, especially his essay On
youngest son and literary executor, has remarked,' no Fairy-Stories, reveal Tolkien to have been exceptionally
study of J.R.R. Tolkien's written work can be complete well-read and well-informed; but it is to his own paint-
without also looking at his art. ings and drawings that one must chiefly turn to see the
He was by no means a professional artist. But he extent of his knowledge of art.
loved to draw, and found in his pictures as in his writihg He was certainly aware of the decorative arts that
an outlet for the visions that burgeoned within his flourished in England during his youth. Tolkien was
thoughts -- another means of expression, another lan- born in South Africa in 1892 and moved to England
guage, as it .vere, among the several in which he was in 1895. William Morris died the following year, but
fluent. He was no dilettante: he did not study art in the Arts and Crafts movement he helped found, and
an academic fashion, nor did he habitually attend art
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