Status
Available
Local notes
741.64 Ham
Collection
Publication
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2012), Edition: First Edition, 144 pages. $40.00.
Description
Tolkien's complete artwork for "The Hobbit," presented for the first time in celebration of the 75th anniversary, includes related pictures, more than 100 sketches, drawings, paintings, maps, and plans.
Awards
Locus Award (Finalist — Art Book — 2013)
Mythopoeic Awards (Finalist — Inklings Studies — 2012)
Original language
English
Original publication date
2011-10-27
Physical description
144 p.; 10 inches
User reviews
LibraryThing member DarthDeverell
In The Art of The Hobbit, editors Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull compile all of the artwork J.R.R. Tolkien created while writing the various drafts of The Hobbit prior to George Allen & Unwin’s interest in it and then as potential illustrations for the published product. Hammond and Scull
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arrange the illustrations in the order of their subject within The Hobbit followed by chronologically by subject so that readers may see how Tolkien altered each over time. Using both Tolkien’s notes, correspondence between he and his publisher, and later letters, Hammond and Scull discuss Tolkien’s inspirations – including historical architecture, his own trip to the Alps, and illustrated books with which he would be familiar – as well as the reason he altered illustrations over time, either due to his own frustration with getting the material just right or due to limitations in the reproduction process. This, like Hammond and Scull’s The Art of the Lord of the Rings, offers an invaluable look into the ideas that never made it into the final version of Tolkien’s legendarium and is a must-read for fans of Middle Earth. Show Less
LibraryThing member MissBrangwen
This book features all the illustrations Tolkien has ever done of The Hobbit - from just mere scribbles and sketches to the colorful and fully developed pictures that were published in the finished work in the first British and American editions and later on. In the book, we follow the journey from
Moreover, you can learn a lot about the book industry and printing in the 1930s - it is amazing to read how Tolkien had to bargain for an additional color in a painting because that was so expensive. Most pictures were just black and white, others with one or two additional colors, and just the most important had more. Very often, his artistic ideas had to be put back due to costs.
I just loved this book and savored every page - and painting - of it. I think it is a great read for everyone who loves The Hobbit and wants to know more about its history, and for people interested in illustrations or bookish history in general.
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Hobbiton to the Lonely Mountain and back, each chapter devoted to a place in the story and the pictures Tolkien drew and painted of that place. The last chapters are reserved for binding designs and the dust jacket, and a specific one on portraits of Bilbo. There are 106 pictures in total, many of them printed on a full page, and each and everyone is explained, details are pointed out and references to other pictures and Tolkien's sources are given. It is a wonderful guide because I surely would have missed many details or specific aspects of interest without that information. I am a bit ambivalent on Tolkien's pictures themselves - there are some I absolutely love (prints of a few of them adore my living room), but some I don't really care for because the style is not one I prefer. These are specifically the very stylized ones, probably because I first saw Alan Lee's and John Howe's pictures, and I'll always imagine Middle-earth like that. However, I am just utterly impressed by Tolkien's ability not only to be a writer, a professor of medieval literature and languages, AND a painter, too. Although he always sold himself short, I think the pictures show great talent. Like his writing, they are painstakingly done, full of details and often done several times over until Tolkien was content. Thus, there are sometimes nearly a dozen pictures of the same scene or place. Moreover, you can learn a lot about the book industry and printing in the 1930s - it is amazing to read how Tolkien had to bargain for an additional color in a painting because that was so expensive. Most pictures were just black and white, others with one or two additional colors, and just the most important had more. Very often, his artistic ideas had to be put back due to costs.
I just loved this book and savored every page - and painting - of it. I think it is a great read for everyone who loves The Hobbit and wants to know more about its history, and for people interested in illustrations or bookish history in general.
Show Less
LibraryThing member CarltonC
Helps to show the development of Tolkien’s writing of The Hobbit and is rather wonderful really. I reread The Hobbit whilst reading this and it added enormously to the appreciation.
Pages
144