J.R.R. Tolkien fascinates me for many reasons. I think of him as a super-talented Renaissance man. He created an elaborate fictional world in Middle Earth. Not only did he show himself a master of letters in his Lord of the Rings trilogy, he illustrated his stories himself with skill. He is a writer, illustrator, cartographer,letterer, philologist, simply a creator on many levels.
Tolkien's illustration of Rivendell, a region of Middle Earth
A Tolkien illustration for The Hobbit
Mary Podles, a retired curator of Renaissance and Baroque art at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, wrote in Touchstone magazine that Tolkien may have been inspired artistically by illustrators Walter Crane, Arthur Rackham, John Bauer and Kay Nielsen and even by the Art Nouveau jewelry of Rene Lalique, in his descriptions of various jewelry for his fictional characters. The Art Nouveau style, most popular from 1890 to 1910, would have been prevalent in Tolkien's childhood. Tolkien was born in 1892.
Lalique pendant, below
Notice that the Lalique pendant is inspired by nature just as in Goldberry's belt of golden flag-lilies, Aragorn's eagle brooch or the hobbits' enameled leaf brooches.
Reproduction of Frodo's leaf brooch from The Lord of the Rings movies
Whether or not these other illustrators influenced Tolkien, I appreciate all of them. Arthur Rackham (1845 - 1939) had a style that is sometimes described as a fusion of European Nordic style and Japanese woodblock. Rackham would do soft pencil sketches, block in shapes around his outline, add details in pen and India ink and layers of washes of transparent tints.
I know, from numerous sources, that Tolkien was influenced by Nordic mythology, so it would not be surprising that he might be influenced by a 'Nordic' illustrator. In fact, Rackham did illustrations for The Rhinegold, The Valkyrie, Siegfried and The Twilight of the Gods by Richard Wagner. Wagner's operas were based on Nordic mythology, and Tolkien's friend, C.S. Lewis, was an avid Wagner fan. Here are some of Rackham's illustrations, one of which is for one of my favorite children's books.
An Arthur Rackham illustration for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Dancing with the Fairies by Arthur Rackham
Walter Crane (1845-1915) was an illustrator of the Arts and Crafts movement as was William Morris, whose fantasy writings such as The Wood Beyond the World, 1894, and The Well at the World's End, 1896, also influenced Tolkien's writing. Crane was similarly influenced by Japanese woodblock design. He worked in watercolor and also in woodcuts.
Walter Crane's illustration for Little Red Riding Hood
Walter Crane's illustration for Beauty and the Beast
Compare Rackham and Crane's illustrations to the examples below.
The Great Wave by Hokusai, a Japanese woodblock design
Kay Nielsen illustration
Kay Nielsen (1886 - 1957), like Lalique, was an Art Nouveau artist. Nielsen, who was Danish, illustrated a collection of Nordic fairy tales in East of the Sun and West of the Moon. He even did some illustration for Night on Bald Mountain for Disney's 1940 Fantasia.
Night on Bald Mountain from the 1940 Fantasia
I see some similarities in each of these styles, in the strong use of outline, in the contrast of dark and light and the stylized shapes. Compare the curving and arcing lines in Night on Bald Mountain with Hokusai's The Wave. Compare both to the circular billows of smoke in Tolkien's own illustration from The Hobbit. I see both Japanese and Art Nouveau influences in Crane's illustration for Beauty and the Beast.
Are we playing six degrees to Tolkien? Maybe. Really, I think the relationships would be easier to diagram with bubbles and interconnecting lines than with a linear outline. Rackham and Nielsen may have influenced Tolkien with their style of art. Japanese woodblock art influenced Rackham and Crane. I personally find it very interesting to see the different philosophical or historical influences on a new trend or movement or relationships between different artists and their influences.
My brother Bruce read this but was discouraged from making a comment when he realized he needed to sign in first. He made his comment privately, but I liked it so well, I decided to post it for him. Bruce says, "The appeal to me of the Great Wave is the near fractal geometry of the leading edge as well as the light and dark contrast." My friend Bob (my honorary brother) also made a good comment, "The amazing thing to me about The Great Wave is that each shade of color came from a different hand carved block of wood (the pieces of which I have seen!). I've also seen a fractal version of The Great Wave (similar to Escher's works), but most intriguing is the fact that it operates on Fibonacci's golden spiral.
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