Greg and Tim Hildebrandt: The Tolkien Years

In comparison to more recent artists who have taken on the helm of Tolkien illustrators (I'm thinking mostly of Alan Lee's exceptional sketches and concept artwork for Peter Jackson's film version of the trilogy) the Hildebrandts may seem to be very much in the realm of stereotypical fantasy art. Mostly male-focused, slightly caricatured creatures, and not exactly realistic or innovative when it comes to landscape or architecture are the general defining terms of this art style, but in the context of when this work was created (the 1970s) the mastery of medium should still be considered a triumph that fed into the longer tradition of Tolkien-inspired artwork. As discussed in the accompanying text of this book, the brothers relied show more heavily on the exacting descriptions provided by Tolkien of Middle Earth and its populace of characters, so even while some of their pieces seem a bit juvenile to the modern eye the artwork is still highly evocative of the text. Particularly with this book, I was impressed with the amount of discussion around the research and background of the paintings - the photoshoots peopled by the artists' friends, young Greg Jr.'s rememberances of the world outside their studio, and the techniques that the brothers used to go from sketches to photo references to large scale sketch to finished painting. show less

The Hildebrandt brothers' calendars were my second introduction to the world of Tolkien during my college years. The first was a book report by another high school student on the Hobbit, which I should have latched onto right away, but once I saw the calendars, I was hooked on Tolkien's books.