A few of you may know that Pauline Baynes, the illustrator of all seven Chronicles of Narnia, died on August 1 at the age of 86. Here's a sweet tribute page to her, complete with personal reminiscences, photographs and a few of her lesser-seen Narnia illustrations by the Canadian artist Martin Springett.
This page has the book covers she did for the original editions and the commemorative paperbacks that were issued for Lewis' centennial.
The Guardian in the UK, published this obit.
Baynes also illustrated several of Tolkien's works, and a poster for the Tolkien poem, "Bilbo's Last Song." Her cover for The Adventures of Tom Bombadil is especially good.
Lewis, it must be said, had no real eye for art, and he used to gripe about Baynes behind her back, complaining (in a letter to Dorothy Sayers) of her poor grasp of animal anatomy. He doesn't seem to have recognized how well she captured Narnia's distinctly Medieval flavor, the way that perspective and volume are sacrificed to offer up a surface of rich and meticulous detail. Medieval tapestry have this quality: small plants and the details of a horse's bridle will be carefully rendered, but the human figures and architecture will have no plausible relationship to each other in space. Everything is on the same level; there is no real focal point. But this, as Lewis would have been the first to argue, is not simply ineptitude. It represents an ethos, in which every aspect of creation can be seen as of equal importance.
I think I speak for countless readers of the Chronicles when I say that I can't really conceive of the books without her contribution.
