Tolkien, the Artist

[Encaitare]

The Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien.

You may get a pop-up when you click asking you for a password (I do, for some reason, anyway). It is, quite appropriately, tolkien.

[Child of the 7th Age]

Encaitare,

Are you sure about that password? I tried Tolkien and it kept heaving me out....

Child

EDIT: P. S. My poor, tired brain finally got it. The password and user name are the same...

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Great topic, Esty! I have that book, and it is one of my favorites. A number of the old calendars and posters also have drawings by Tolkien, if anyone collects them.

[Lalwendë]

I think it is clear that Tolkien was not a professional visual artist as his work does cover so many styles and forms, but this is in no way a criticism, as he was certainly a highly accomplished artist, much more accomplished than most of us could ever hope to be (speaking for myself ). I'm often deeply impressed by the level of detail he managed to get into his illustrations and these certainly have a distinguished style - it is possible to identify his work. Yet, like a professional, he did utilise different styles according to the purpose of the work. The illustrations for his Father Christmas Letters are very distinct from those he created for The Hobbit, for example.

I often think just how modern his illustrations are, as Aiwendil has already mentioned. His illustrations make great use of geometric forms, cross-hatching and bold shapes. The shapes used in the trees in the picture Bilbo comes to the Huts of the Raft-elves (if the link works ) is remarkably similar to the bold style used by Clarice Cliff . I think the use of bold shapes was quite common during this period, and I like to think that Tolkien did get some influence from professional artists (and artisans).

It is also possible to see a slight influence of Japanese art in his work, whether intentioned or not I could not say, but many of his mountains remind me of Japanese artwork of Mount Fuji.

Great website, Encaitare!

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Thanks for the good replies so far! I'm glad to see that others are interested in this topic and have the same book. That, along with the link Encataire gives, provides us with lots of material for discussion.

Yes, Aiwendil, I too think that the impressionistic style is one that Tolkien obviously liked and found suitable for what he wanted to express. The paintings you mention are watercolour, which tends to look impressionistic anyway.

I remember seeing a website with pictures of Middle-earth calendars, Child; I'll have to find my old bookmark and post the link here. I don't know how many have his own pictures though - quite a few are Hildebrand, Howe, Lee, etc.

Lalwendë, "Bilbo comes to the Huts of the Raftelves" is the painting that is on the cover of my Hobbit book! I really like the stylized trees and landscape there and find the general impression is very close to Art Nouveau. I can see the similarity to some of the Clarice Cliff artwork, as well - thanks for the link! I hadn't thought of the possible Japanese influence, but there are definite similarities!

[Bêthberry]

Wonderful idea for a discussion, Esty! I remember years ago pouring over Tolkien's paintings and drawings looking for something I could use as an avatar for my RPG character. I didn't find an avatar (back then I lacked the expertise to be able to photoshop something), but I did pass several enjoyable hours.

I don't have the Harmmound and Scull book, so I will be dependant upon you to quote from it. Perhaps this question is a bit premature, as you want to move through the book's ideas slowly, but 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?

[davem]

Of course one theme which runs right through Tolkien’s art is nature. Not included in the Artist & Illustrator volume is a page from a sketchbook of 1896, included in the Bodlean Library 1992 Tolkien Exhibition catalogue. Tolkien would have been 5 or 6 at the time. The page shows ‘Sea Weeds & Starfish’ & were illustrated from life while on a seaside holiday. I supppose this was the family’s first holiday, & it seems possible that his love of the sea may have arisen at this time. The illustration of seaweed is very similar in shape to the Tree of Amalion on p86 of A&I. do wonder if the Sea became such a strong theme in his work - as strong as the rural English countryside - at the same time & perhaps for the same reason - that both were first experienced through the eyes of a child.

I seem to recall reading that Tolkien said he could never study myth & fairystory as subjects in themselves, as he would always end up taking the ideas & symbols up into his own Legendarium. It seems that he did the same with the natural world. The undersea world depicted in the sketchbook certainly reappeared later in ‘mythological’ form in the paintings he did for Roverrandom, & also in his final (?) painting The Hills of Morning’, & the connections between the illustration of Tumble Hill (p30) & various later paintings of Lothlorien in Spring (p162) & The Elvenking’s Gate (p128), among others is clear.

I have to say, though, that the ‘Visions, Myths & Legends’ section is perhaps the most interesting to me. ‘End of the World’ (p 40) is a variant of the tarot image The Fool, showing a figure blithely stepping off a cliff. I don’t know if Tolkien had seen a Tarot pack before drawing this - if not the image is all the more remarkable, & seems to confirm that tarot images are archetypal images arising from the unconscious. In fact, many of the illustrations in this section have a disturbing quality. One thing that did strike me (even before reading the text in which the authors point it out) was the way the doorway in ‘Before’ was the same shape as the one in the Elvenking’s Gate & The Back Door (p138). The similarity between the hand emerging from behind the curtain in ‘Wickedness’ & that in ‘Maddo’ is also pointed out by Hammond & Scull. Another ‘tarot’ connection can be seen in Eeriness (p43), which is reminiscent of The Hermit. ‘Before’, ‘Afterwards’ & ‘Wickedness’ are all ‘UnderWorld’ images, & seem to reflect a deep psychological & spiritual experience, an UnderWorld Journey.

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Esty

I'd like to proceed as the book does, beginning with his early works of art and sharing some of the information with those who do not have access to this great book.

Now that I can see the book, I can refer to some of those early works, just as you mentioned! His sketches of Whitby fascinated me as I did not know he had been there, and like everyone else who visits the town, he seems to have found three things interesting: the bridge and harbour, the abbey and the 199 steps and the old town (his picture of this is sadly not in this book).

Out of interest, his sketch of the swing bridge reflects a scene that can still be seen to this day; only the small cluster of buildings immediately to the right of the bridge have since been demolished. Here is the same scene as photographed by Frank Meadow Sutcliffe in the late 1800's, before the new bridge, and here it is today. I think he'd be pleased to know that the orcs hadn't spoiled the place too much. And it does have a Middle Earth Tavern.

[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!

[Aiwendil]

I find many of the images from the "Visions, Myths, and Legends" chapter quite fascinating. There are, on the one hand, pictures of the sort you'd expect: scenes and places associated with Tolkien's mythology. But I was surprised by some of the pictures that bear no apparent relation to his literary work. I would certainly love to have a copy of The Book of Ishness.

I wonder whether anyone has any thoughts on the pair "Before" and "Afterwards". Hammond and Scull speculate that in moving from the first image to the second we have gone through a door to find a figure on a torchlit path; they suggest that this represents "the entrance to Death" and "the soul travelling on its way". This seems a reasonable interpretation, but there is little in either picture to suggest it particularly. If it were not for the titles, the pictures would have no obvious connection aside from a similarity in style - and yet the titles suggest not only a connection but a specific program. In any case, I think that "Before", as simple as it is, is one of the most evocative pictures Tolkien drew.

"Undertenishness" and "Grownupishness" appear to form another pair. Both surprised me when I first saw them: "Undertenishness" for its trick of being both a forest and a butterfly and "Grownupishness" for its cartoonish style.

Tolkien makes interesting use of watercolours in some of the other images from this chapter. In "Water, Wind, & Sand", "Tanaqui", and "The Shores of Faery" he presents highly stylized images from his mythology. The flat, sectional approach he uses is rather effective, I think. "Water, Wind, & Sand" in particular evokes the same feeling as the poem with which it is associated.

In some ways, I can't help but think, these early pictures are similar to his early writing (mainly the Book of Lost Tales); they are at once more primitive, more varied, and more experimental than his later work.