Pauline Baynes obituary
Sad news from the Mother Country: Pauline Baynes, who brought the fantasy world alive with her illustrations for the works of J.R.R. Tolkein and C.S. Lewis, has died. She was 85.
An obituary in the Guardian describes the artist's move from crafting charts and maps during World War II to professional commissions. Her breakthrough: creating artwork for Tolkein's Farmer Giles of Ham. Then came a commission to illustrate the book for which both author and illustrator are best remembered, Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the Guardian says.
The task of a fantasy illustrator must be extremely difficult. You have to put some flesh on the author's words, while still leaving room for the reader's imagination to roam. But Baynes was a master, and we can thank her for helping to popularize some of the world's greatest fantasy novels.
To see some of her work, try this site from the publisher Zondervan.
Comments
If it was not for this post, I would have never known about Pauline Baynes. I have read the first couple of books in the Narnia series, with the illustrations, and I believe every word you say about her work is true.
It is strange though that quite a few of us book lovers never realise there is so much creativity behind illustrations, book-design, etc. Kind of the back bone of a great 'book-owning' expreience.
Posted by: BookCrazy | August 8, 2008 1:28 AM