A Vision of Middle-earth
A wonderful article was published in the Times literary Supplement back in September on the artist Mary Fairburn, whose work Tolkien greatly admired, and, indeed desired to purchase. His favourite was a drawing of Galadriel at the Well in Lórien, which he said “attracts me because it so very nearly corresponds to my own mental vision of the scene.” He did not simply like Miss Fairburn’s pictures: he liked them as illustrations of the book, and approved of her as an potential illustrator of his work, as opposed to artists such as Cor Blok and Pauline Baynes, whom although he purchased their work as isolated paintings, did not consider them illustrator material.
The article goes on to give a fascinating insight into the unfortunate circumstances that conspired to prevent Fairburn getting a commission from Tolkien's publishers, quoting extensively from the correspondance between Tolkien and Fairburn.Mary Fairburn’s images are a particularly significant response to The Lord of the Rings, and the artist’s correspondence with Tolkien makes them uniquely interesting and valuable. It may be argued that Tolkien was – irrespective of his actual feelings – usually polite to admirers who sent him their creative tributes to his work. In 1962, for example, when the Scottish composer Thea Musgrave proposed writing a musical drama based on the novel, Tolkien “told [her] that he would await further developments with interest”, although in writing to Rayner Unwin, he said more frankly that “he is not excited about the project”. But Tolkien’s comments to Mary Fairburn about her work go far beyond polite interest. When he complimented her on her “attention to the text”, and told her that her paintings conformed to his own “mental vision” and were causing him to reconsider his view that the book should not be illustrated, this was more than gratuitous flattery. And his reiterated request to see more of her paintings, and in particular his “private offer of purchase” and “gift” of £50, were far more than mild encouragement. Her paintings were seen and approved by him, not simply as fine paintings of his imaginary land, but as sympathetic and illuminating illustrations of his book, that – had circumstances been different – he might have been prepared to see printed alongside his text. They thus offer a unique insight into the author’s own vision of The Lord of the Rings.
Rather like Pauline Baynes with Narnia (Tolkien liked Baynes' work, too).
