Most Tolkien fans only know me as the person behind this website and an avid Tolkien book collector. When I was a kid I started my adventure by reading a well-read copy of The Hobbit. It did not take me long to discover The Lord of the Rings and other books by and about Tolkien. Soon I embarked on a quest to discover anything there was to learn about him. In 1992 I went to some Tolkien exhibitions, and got inspired by them to take my hobby of collecting even further. This was my personal push out of my hobbit hole's front door and it took me into realms I did not even know existed. On the road I learned to know many people and learned many things about Tolkien and the world he had created. Soon I was sitting on a big Tolkien book collection, my own personal hoard and enjoyed it very much like Smaug enjoyed his treasure.

One day I decided that while collecting and writing about it online was fun I wanted to meet some other people and started to go to some meetings and once again Tolkien took me to places I would never have been gone before and I learned to know people from all over the globe who I could share my passion with. And so it happened 5 years ago, that I ended up talking with the illustrator Cor Blok, at a Tolkien meeting in Holland.

Cor Blok manages to deftly sidestep the slavery to meer representation that most fantasy artists fall foul of. Anyone who has read Tolkiens' On Fairy Stories and letters to Pauline Baynes can see why Tolkien appreciated a more abstract, graphic and symbolic approach to illustrating his work, and understood how representational images provide a too limiting version of something.

It took me years to collect all pieces of the puzzle and while at first I had no intention to ever do much with the info, my passion somehow engaged others to aid me and even engaged the publishers and Tolkien family to print a calendar with all Cor Bloks' art. Just like Cor did not need to depict realistic characters I no longer needed to own the pieces I was looking for and enjoyed finding the treasures like any collector enjoys finding a rare Tolkien item.

At first I started my quest online looking for any info on Cor Blok's Lord of the Rings that could be found. But it did not take long to realize that, next to the pieces that had already been published in Tolkien calendars, postcards books and Realms of Tolkien, there was not much to be found. Also getting in contact with the artist proofed to be difficult and after writing to all universities and museum where he had worked, no one seemed to know where Cor Blok lived. In the end it was the Amsterdam University Press, who had released his book called Beeldvertalen ('Translating images', an introduction to the interpretation of visual images), which was able to give me his postal address. By then I had also had contact with members of the Dutch Tolkien Society who provided me with info about Cor Blok's past exhibitions and had provided me with some pictures of some of his unpublished art.

Now I'm happy to announce that the Tolkien calendar for 2012 will present even more Cor Blok art and that there was also released a book that brings together all the Lord of the Rings art by his hand, now exactly 50 years after they were created.

A Tolkien Tapestry - Pictures to accompany The Lord of the Rings

The approximately 100 full-colour paintings in this new book are presented in story order so that the reader can enjoy them as the artist intended. If one looks at the art works one by one you can easily tell the complete tale of The Lord of the Rings. So all the paintings are accompanied by extracts from The Lord of the Rings and the artist also provides an extensive introduction illuminating the creation of the series and notes to accompany some of the major compositions.

Many of the paintings appear here for the very first time. Readers will find Cor Blok's work refreshing, provocative, charming and wholly memorable – the bold and expressive style that he created stands as a unique achievement in the history of fantasy illustration. Rarely has an artist captured the essence of a writer's work in such singular fashion; the author himself agreed, and what higher accolade is there?About Cor Blok

Cor Blok was born in The Hague in 1934, and attended the Academy of Fine Arts. After graduating in 1956, he worked at the Gemeentemuseum until 1965, where, among other roles, he compiled a catalogue of the museum's large collection of works by Piet Mondrian. During this time he also painted about 140 pictures inspired by The Lord of the Rings, a selection of which was exhibited at The Hague. When a sample of his paintings was sent to JRR Tolkien this led to a correspondence and eventual meeting with the author, who bought two paintings and was presented with a third. Cor Blok lives in Amsterdam, where is currently at work on a graphic novel.

Here you can find a writteninterview with Cor Blok.

And here is a video produced by Librarie Mollat Bordeaux who did an interview with Cor Blok in Paris, France.

Hardcover edition of A Tolkien Tapestry

The hardcover edition brings a long and interesting essay by Cor Blok and an overview of Cor Blok's art in order of the book The Lord of the Rings. More then 100 paintings by Cor Blok takes us through the story of The Lord of the Rings, this time not in words but in pieces of art. It is a high quality printing, as most expect from art books by HarperCollins.

Translations of A Tolkien Tapestry

Since the release of the book in English it also saw two translations. We are now all waiting and hope for a Dutch translation, and who knows the book receives more translations in the near future!?

De luxe Slipcased edition of A Tolkien Tapestry

Original art by Cor Blok

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