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Painting ‘the most beautiful of all the Children of Ilúvatar’: Aesthetic Beauty in The Silmarillion and its Illustrations — Online Midsummer Seminar, 2025

In August 2025 I gave a talk at the Mythopoeic Society’s OMS (which I’d attended for a few years without daring to apply). This presentation is, as is often the case with my talks, largely taken from a chapter of my PhD. This time, I explore the concept of visual beauty in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Legendarium, through the rather telling example of Lúthien, and what that means for artists commissioned to illustrate her in official editions sanctionned by the Tolkien Estate, namely Alan Lee and Ted Nasmith. Depiste focusing on these two well-known names, I made it a point to include a lot of stunning fan-art in my powerpoint presentation, and to add a coda at the end about diversity.

The recording is available to watch here (click). Please ignore the technical glitch at the start.


OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
Marie Bretagnolle (26 août 2025). Painting ‘the most beautiful of all the Children of Ilúvatar’: Aesthetic Beauty in The Silmarillion and its Illustrations — Online Midsummer Seminar, 2025. Tolkien & illustration. Consulté le 16 mars 2026 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/14i9y


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