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Daughter of Nienna
Grey Havens
Apr 27 2007, 2:04am
Post #1 of 11
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Tolkien Art-John Howe: Places, Part A — The Shire & Rivendell
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~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ The Shire ~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Bag End
45.8 x 35.9 cm, 1995
There and Back Again - The Map of the Hobbit by Brian Sibley
Harper Collins Publishers, 1995
Mary Butler, on whose capable if occasionally weary shoulders rested the day-to-day burdens of Tolkien publishing, said to me: "Right, I want the door on the front cover and remember there's tons of copy on the back. No Bilbo please, and leave the door open." What can you reply to that? I sat down and got to work. Thank you Mary, it's become one of my happier pictures.
I dutifully hauled out my copy of the Hobbit, with professor Tolkien's rendering of the front hall, and started sketching. I also own Switzerland's largest collection of books (three) on Norwegain medieval churches, and these were my principal inspiration. Some of the furniture is from our house, (and the seat on the left would be if only I could afford it) and the rest fell into place quite spontaneously.
It's since become something you can actually walk into - in two scales, no less: human and hobbit - but that's entirely another subject.
From Bag End to Wilderland, page 1
Bag End
Meditations on Middle-Earth
Edited by Karen Haber
Saint Martin's Press, New York, November 2001
A rather more rustic interpretation of Bag End - in this case the contractual obligation version...Having designed Bag End for the Lord of the Rings movies, I am not really allowed to re-use ideas developed for the films. (This is annoying only when you happen to have a GOOD idea for once...) But, the delightful aspect of Middle-Earth is that one can go back forever. A round green door in the side of a hill...
The Shire
Meditations on Middle-Earth
Edited by Karen Haber
Saint Martin's Press, New York, November 2001
Bagshot Row, and Bag End in the middle; with a tree in the foreground of which I am fond enough to put anywhere I can find an excuse to do so. (The word 'tree' is linked on the page to another image with the same tree…then a trail of images with the same tree.)
From Bag End to Wilderland, page 3
Gandalf Returns to Hobbiton — 1994
The Return of the Shadow, by Christopher Tolkien
Grafton Books, October 1994
(links to various forms of publication on the page)
For ages I had wanted to do a painting of Gandalf returning to Bag End after one of his lengthy absences. All of the elements fell very naturally in to place, especially the lane leading back to the distance in the left, symbolic of the troubles and cares pursuing Gandalf, heralding the evil stirring far beyond the horizon of the Shire.
From Hobbiton to Mordor, page 3
Comments: I included this in the Gandalf post…but the Shire is as much the subject in this image. Do you think justice is done to The Shire?
Black Riders in the Shire — 1999
The 200l Tolkien Calendar, HarperCollinsPublishers
More New Zealand landscape - minus the hobbit dwellings in this case.
From Hobbiton to Mordor, page 1
The Shire (Panarama)
(another special image: click image to go to page…cick that image for bigger one)
11.8 x 58.5 cm, 1994
The Map of Tolkien's Middle-Earth, by Brian SIBLEY
HarperCollinsPublishers, Sept. 1994
This painting is based on an old postcard I found one day at a flea market. Undoubtedly turn-of-the-century; I would imagine Symbolist or Victorian. The postcard was in sepia... I wonder if the original was in colour... and if I got them right.
Actually, I have found out in the meantime, courtesy of a laudably patriotic Swede via the guestbook... The painting is called "The Cloud", by Prince Eugen of Sweden, a brother of the late King of Sweden, Gustaf V. The original painting hangs in "Valdermarsudde" in Stockholm.
From Hobbiton to Mordor, page 8
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Rivendell ~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Rivendell
Meditations on Middle-Earth, edited by Karen Haber
Saint Martin's Press, New York
November 2001
From Hobbiton to Mordor, page 5
Rivendell
The Fellowship of the Ring, J. R. R. Tolkien
Grafton Books — 1990
This painting was "purchased" by the scan company who managed to tear it in half on a scanning drum. I wonder how you do that? Perhaps the technician worked part-time as a bandage remover in a hospital. Rrrrri-i-i-iipppp!!!
From Hobbiton to Mordor, page 6
Descent into Rivendell
The Map of Tolkien's Middle-Earth, Brian Sibley
Harper Collins Publishers
This image has never actually been published in one piece, having been divided in two to go on the front and back covers of the Map of Middle-Earth.
to see the full image…go to Dogo's post.
From Hobbiton to Mordor, page
Rivendell
Vignette from The Map of Tollkien's Middle-Earth. I have to admit that my concept of Rivendell has changed somewhat since...
From Hobbiton to Mordor, page 6
Q: I have been wondering, how did he get the idea to do Rivendell as though it were a castle… a castle from a 'Cinderella' type story. What are you ideas as to why he might have started with this concept? And, Where do you think his concept has moved toward? What changed it?
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Middle-Earth ~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Panorama
>> click on image on page for larger version (can't link directly to it..it's special)
From Hobbiton to Mordor - Master Board
Lord of the Rings Boardgame, Sophisticated Games © 2000
The master board is in play for the duration of the game, hence the abbreviated landscape from Hobbiton to Mordor. While this kind of illlustration is obviously vital to the game, it's not really much of a pleasure to do.
From Hobbiton to Mordor, page 5
The Map of Middle-Earth
From Hobbiton to Mordor, page 8
….
Art Gallery Revised, Aloha & Mahalo, Websites Directory
Nienna: “ those who hearken to her learn pity, and endurance in hope . . . All those who wait in Mandos cry to her, for she brings strength to the spirit and turns sorrow to wisdom." — Valaquenta
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Noneoftheabove
Lorien
Apr 29 2007, 10:28pm
Post #2 of 11
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John Howe's Bag End sketch is one of my favorites.
Looking at it, I feel as though I am being invited to explore Middle Earth. And that is the whole point I think. It was on the cover of the "Maps of Middle Earth" book, so the message is clear.
For me it encapsulates the magic of Bilbo's desire for adventure and his first stepping out of door to see Middle Earth. Our point of view is almost as if we were Bilbo, and Gandalf has opened the door to push us out on our quest. We're not quite to the door because we're all a little over-whelmed by the prospect of leaving.
That is at least what I see.
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Beren IV
Gondor
Apr 30 2007, 12:50am
Post #3 of 11
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I'm finding it dificult to identify a piece by Howe that I don't like...
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Actually, I like a more realistic Orodruin, since I know what real volcanoes look like.
I like this Imladris, and this Bag End, although I think that the Imladris looks a little too fortified with crennelations on the upper turret. The rain is a nice touch, also. I also notice that Howe really likes the Mountains of the Paine in Chile, as he has used them both here in Rivendell and also in his battle of Glorfindel pic!
Once a paleontologist, now a botanist, will be a paleobotanist
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Daughter of Nienna
Grey Havens
Apr 30 2007, 2:14am
Post #4 of 11
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"got" what the point of illustration is. 
Very eloquently put.
Art Gallery Revised, Aloha & Mahalo, Websites Directory
Nienna: “ those who hearken to her learn pity, and endurance in hope . . . All those who wait in Mandos cry to her, for she brings strength to the spirit and turns sorrow to wisdom." — Valaquenta
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mae govannen
Tol Eressea
Apr 30 2007, 3:05pm
Post #5 of 11
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seen through that open door... but we are still pretty much inside of... Bag End??? Or a slightly hobbitisized little medieval cathedral, so neat and devoid of any clutter or familiar objects that one wonders if it is really Bilbo who lives there?...
It is great to look at, but almost too elegant for a Hobbit's home, and clearly not comfortable enough, I would say, with its stern, hard medieval furniture one would hesitate to sit on... unless one would be actually John Howe!!!
Still, it is a very nice painting indeed.
'Is everything sad going to come untrue?'
(Sam, 'The Field of Cormallen', in 'The Return of the King'.)
(This post was edited by mae govannen on Apr 30 2007, 3:06pm)
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Noneoftheabove
Lorien
May 1 2007, 10:30am
Post #6 of 11
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Bilbo's father, Bungo, built for his wife with her money the grandest Hobbit hole in all the Shire.
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For myself the architecture is not too grand for Hobbits, especially one such as Bilbo to live in.
Tolkien himself says a Hobbit hole is not a nasty or dirty, wet hole, but a very well appointed home, even for the most humble of Hobbits.
The viewer point of view for this piece of art is a bit low, even for a Hobbit. Yet I imagine Biblo has sat down in defiance or fright with one of his "funny, strange fits" that Gandalf mentions as a paculiar trait of Bilbo's when his Baggins side surfaces!
"Adventure, we will have none of that here; A nasty, bothersome thing that makes one late for dinner!" as Bilbo might say.
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mae govannen
Tol Eressea
May 1 2007, 1:08pm
Post #7 of 11
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Yes, for sure, I agree with that , and
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very far from me was any thought that a Hobbit hole is "a nasty or dirty, wet hole"!!!
The only nuance I was trying to introduce in our appreciation of the way John Howe imagined Bag End, was that it didn't look very cosy and comfortable; perhaps when I said 'too elegant', that could be misunderstood indeed; but I had hoped that by adding the more precise terms 'stern' and 'austere', and by pointing clearly at the medieval furniture as the main 'culprit', or the slightly inappropriate element in a Hobbit's home (however grand we may agree that this one was) I would make myself clearly understood, but I can see I have still not been clear enough. Sorry for that, Noneoftheabove! 
The way the interior of that entrance hall looked finally in the film was in my opinion just perfect; they must have softened some of the too straight lines, added the little details here and there that would give the feeling of cosiness, and there it was: just right!... I would have to look at a still from the film to check if the medieval furniture was still there or not, now I could only say that if it is indeed there, they managed to make it unconspicuous, for I have never noticed it before while watching the film!... But of course, while watching the film, one's focus is rather on what is going on than on the decor in itself... 
'Is everything sad going to come untrue?'
(Sam, 'The Field of Cormallen', in 'The Return of the King'.)
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FarFromHome
Valinor
May 1 2007, 1:13pm
Post #8 of 11
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do look a little too formal for a hobbit-hole, don't they? I'd always imagined Bag End with something like the cluttered look of an English country house - lots of old and even shabby odds and ends, cosy surfaces, and dark, warm wood. Now that I know that John Howe was inspired by some of his own furniture that he presumably collected in Switzerland, it explains something else that had always puzzled me. The movie Bag End has always struck me as having a Swiss, almost Germanic, style to it, which now makes sense, since it was based on John Howe's illustrations. The movie set dressers layered in lots of clutter, though, so it still ends up more like my idea of the cosy, unpretentiously warm Bag End I'd imagined than the one in this picture (beautiful and striking though it is).
(P.S. Your reply to Noneoftheabove hadn't appeared on the board when I wrote this - sorry if I've ended up repeating some of what you said!)
...and the sails were drawn up, and the wind blew,
and slowly the ship slipped away down the long grey firth;
and the light of the glass of Galadriel that Frodo bore
glimmered and was lost.
(This post was edited by FarFromHome on May 1 2007, 1:17pm)
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Noneoftheabove
Lorien
May 1 2007, 8:43pm
Post #9 of 11
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Lets at least agree that we disagree.
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I should have just left my post at : "For myself the architecture is not too grand for Hobbits, especially one such as Bilbo to live in."
(This post was edited by Noneoftheabove on May 1 2007, 8:43pm)
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mae govannen
Tol Eressea
May 3 2007, 9:12am
Post #10 of 11
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I can see we agree fully, then!... :-)
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'Is everything sad going to come untrue?'
(Sam, 'The Field of Cormallen', in 'The Return of the King'.)
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mae govannen
Tol Eressea
May 3 2007, 9:15am
Post #11 of 11
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Well, the two lines inside your post we certainly agree on!... :-)
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'Is everything sad going to come untrue?'
(Sam, 'The Field of Cormallen', in 'The Return of the King'.)
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