M is for Many Illustrators, Especially John Howe, Pauline Baynes, and Tove Jansson (A to Z on Tolkien and the Inklings)

M is for many illustrators! Not strictly Inklings, of course.

Three of my favourites are:

John Howe (who did the covers for the History of Middle-earth series, and who lives in Switzerland!)

Pauline Baynes (who has illustrated Tolkien's The Hobbit, Smith of Wootton Major, Farmer Giles of Ham, the Tom Bombadil stories, and C. S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia, among others)

Tove Jansson (author of the Moomin books).

For collections of other artists, see the many images collated on Britta Siemen's pinterest page.


John Howe has interesting stories on his blog; one of the more recent ones was a long history of the illustrator of the original books of the land of Oz. I love his colours and the richness of his lines. I just noticed, his website allows you to send many of these illustrations as e-cards!










I've been slowly trying to collect a few more of the Tolkien books I've always known about but never been able to get before. The last one I got was the poem Bilbo's Last Song, illustrated by Pauline Baynes:




I also love Baynes' illustrations because they're perfect for colouring in!



Finnish author Tove Jansson was asked by Astrid Lindgren to illustrate the Finnish edition of The Hobbit:


I don't have this edition, but this year's Tolkien calendar reproduced the drawings, and I was happy to get that. I still haven't taken it out of its plastic wrapping!

Do you have a particular favourite illustrator?

Comments

Hi Deniz - gosh you have found a lot of stuff out - I love the idea we can send ecards from John Howe's site ... I'll look into that ...

John Tenniel was a great illustrator for Lewis Carroll, while I love Edward Lear's illustrations for his limericks and poems ... I see he is Sir John Tenniel ... I mentioned his sister in my Cornish K last year ...

The illustrating Botanists were exceptional too ...

Wonderful collection you're giving us here - as we learn more through you .. cheers Hilary
Deniz Bevan said…
I've got to remember to send cards from his site, too, Hilary!