Pauline Baynes

Baynes spent her early years in India where her father was commissioner in Agra. She later moved to England for her schooling. Baynes attended the Slade School of Fine Art, but after a year she volunteered to work for the Ministry of Defence to paint camouflage. She was soon transferred to a map-making department (knowledge of which she later employed to good effect when she drew maps of Narnia for C.S. Lewis and of Middle-earth for J.R.R. Tolkien).

Baynes was J.R.R. Tolkien's chosen illustrator. In 1949, she illustrated Farmer Giles of Ham, followed by cover art for the
1961 Puffin edition of The Hobbit and a triptych for the slip-case of the 1964 deluxe edition of The Lord of the Rings. In 1962, she illustrated The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, and in 1967, Smith of Wootton Major. Before Tolkien's death, she also illustrated two posters: "A Map of Middle-earth" (1970) and "There and Back Again" (based on The Hobbit, 1971). After Tolkien's death, she provided illustrations for the poem Bilbo's Last Song (as a poster in 1974, as a book in 1990) and the collection Poems and Stories (1980). She also painted the covers for the British 1973 one-volume and 1981 three-volume paperback editions of The Lord of the Rings. The final published appearance of Baynes' Tolkien art was the addition of her map of "The Little Kingdom" to the fiftieth anniversary edition of Farmer Giles of Ham (1999).

1. Esta ficha se ha importado inicialmente de TolkienGateway.net el día 29/05/2026.