Rarely Seen Paintings by J.R.R. Tolkien Portray a Lush 'Lord of the Rings' Landscape

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In his high-fantasy novels, British author J.R.R. Tolkien combined his academic training in languages and his love of storytelling to create Middle-earth, a fictional continent populated by wizards, elves, orcs, dragons, hobbits, talking trees and other mythical creatures.

But Middle-earth didn’t just live in Tolkien’s head: The Lord of the Rings author was also a skilled artist who sketched, painted and mapped the worlds that he was imagining as he wrote about them. Many of the original illustrations in the Hobbit were created by Tolkien himself.

Audiences can now view a selection of Tolkien’s rarely seen Lord of the Rings artworks for free via the Tolkien Estate’s newly updated website, reports Sarah Cascone for Artnet. The portal, which debuted last month, also allows viewers to explore documents, images and audio clips related to Tolkien’s personal life and his lesser-known pursuits as a mapmaker, calligrapher and artist.

According to an emailed statement, the site features 12 previously unpublished items, including Tolkien’s paintings of flowers and exotic birds, a draft manuscript of The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son (1953), and photographs of the author and his family. The website debuted on February 26—a date that might ring a bell with die-hard Lord of the Rings fans: February 26, 3019, was the “date in the Third Age when the Fellowship of the Ring was broken at Amon Hen and Frodo and Sam set out on their lonely and terrifying journey to Mordor,” per the statement.

Long article and more photos at:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/jrr-tolkiens-estate-publishes-rare-lord-of-the-rings-paintings-and-maps-online-180979674/

The Hill: Hobbiton-across-the-Water, August 1937
Courtesy of the Tolkien Estate / © The Tolkien Estate Limited
A black and white version of this illustration appeared in the original Hobbit; not long after, J.R.R. Tolkien revised the picture and published a color version in the first American edition of the book.

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1. Thanks for this...

I went to his Estate's site.
I have to give JRRT more credit as an artist than I did as a teen.

I see he can do real life paintings, drawings quite nicely.


He often has a quite stylized way of painting. I like a lot more of what I see than the few I've seen in the past.
Although I always really liked the barrels one were they've escaped, to arrive near the elves by a lake.

Thanks again🙂👍