Middle-earth Journeys

I wonder what this tells us about Tolkien's vision of Middle-earth.

It's interesting, isn't it? I would have thought that he wouldn't have liked them, and yet he loved them enough to buy two. Apart from Pauline Baynes he was pretty scathing about all the other illustrators he had inflicted on him.

I was talking with Cor about this... imagine a painter going there to show his work and donate one painting. And then in the end also sell two of them. Sad Cor does not remember much of the meeting any more.

That's such a shame, Beren. He must have been thrilled by Tolkien's interest at the time and it would have been wonderful to hear his memories of it.

The more I look at Blok's work the more I love it. I wish there was a better reproduction (larger and lighter) available of 'The Vision of Frodo upon Amon Hen'. It fascinates me - there is so much detail there but it's so hard to make it all out clearly.

I found this forum as I was searching if I could find anything about Cor Blok's Tolkien paintings on the internet, as I own one of them. I bought it around twenty years ago at a kind of exhibition organized by the Dutch Tolkien Society "Unquendor' in a church in Leiden, so maybe this was sold by the René Rossenberg someone mentioned in this thread ?
There is a card with it that says "Descent of Emyn Muil by Cor Blok - gouache on silkpaper". It is a painting with very few colours: a yellow-gray rock, a dark grey night sky behind it, an Frodo and Sam descending from a rope.
It's very strange to read here that Cor Blok himself didn't know that his paintings were sold to private buyers, one wonders how the Tolkien Society came by them...did they buy the paintings from Cor Blok ???? And it's a pity they apparently didn't make any pictures of the paintings before selling them...(and they didn't write down to whom they sold...or did they...of course I moved house several times after that )

if you ever come to sell it... i'd love to add a Cor Blok to my ever growing collection of Tolkien art!!

Beren wrote:(...)
The pictures are all very small, like minatures and they were all framed in a same sort of frame. Paintings which are not in this frame are bound to be fake. (...)

The painting I have doesn't have any signature on it (except when it's hidden behind te 'passe-partout', I never got it out of it's frame). As I bought it from Unquendor do you think there is any chance that it's fake ?And did you really come across fake ones ??

I do not have plans to sell it but I'll save your website so I'll know how to contact you if I ever change my mind... (and you don't own one by then )

Well Katja this is fascinating news. I imagine his work could be found in anyone's house knowing what we know about the mysterious where abouts of his work. What an interesting read to see you may have solved one mystery.

And Beren, it's good to see you're still lurking.

Oh, I hope it's not a fake! Welcome to Middle-earth Journeys, Katja. Are you still a Tolkien lover?

Hello Katja . How wonderful to own a Cor Blok! I am with envy. I'm so pleased that there are many more of them out there than can be found on the internet. It's very frustrating not to be able to see all the amazing pictures he painted!

ARE WE TALK OVER THE ARTIST PROF.COR BLOK JUST LET ME ADD A PICTURE OF HIM SO YOU KNOW HIM A LITTLE BETTER
PICTURES TAKEN AT THE UNQUENDOR LUSTRUMFEEST IN 2006 WHERE HE WAS THE GUEST OF HONOR WHERE HE TALKED ABOUT THE CREATION OF THESE ILLUSTRATION. YOU NOW CAN READ IT IN THE LEMBAS EXTRA ISSUED BY TOLKIEN GENOOTSCHAP UNQUENDOR (WHERE YOU CAN ORDER A COPY) ALSO AT THE TOLKIENWINKEL IN LEIDEN

HOOM TROUBLE'S HOW TO GET HIS PICTURES (4) HERE ? HELP
LET ME KNOW HOW ME

hi Fangorn! I'd love to see those pictures, especially having read the article in the magazine which you so kindly gave me. When I want to show pictures here on MEJ, I upload them first to www.Photobucket.com which gives each image a file name which you can coy and paste into the text of a post. Alternatively if you email them to Iolanthe I'm sure she'd be happy to add them to your entry!

Hi Fangorn - yes, email them to me and I'll post them for you. I'd love to see what he looks like!

I have the pictures of Cor Blok from Fangorn so here is the Man Himself. So great to finally see him after admiring his works for so long:

Thanks Fangorn! It's good to put a face to a name .

Absolutely - thanks, Fangorn!