MORE than 50 watercolour illustrations of creatures and characters from the famous C.S. Lewis novels will be on display at a Hampshire country estate.
Illustrations from the world of Narnia will be on show at the National Trust’s Mottisfont in Romsey this autumn. The artwork by Pauline Baynes was created for C. S. Lewis’s famous series of children’s books.
The exhibition, featuring more than 50 Narnian designs, celebrates 100 years since the artist was born and will be on show from September 24 to November 6.
Childhood favourite characters such as Aslan and Mr Tumnus will make an appearance alongside many lesser-known figures from the Narnian mythology: sea people, centaurs, dragons, dwarves, and a host of talking animals.
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A Book of Narnians was published in 1994 to celebrate the world C.S. Lewis created. Baynes’s illustrations visualised some elements of the stories for the first time, as well as highlighting favourite characters from all seven books. The original artworks are marked with Baynes’s own notations for publication.
Two illustrations from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe act as appetizers for Mottisfont's Narnian themed Christmas this winter, where more of Baynes’s original works from the iconic story will be open to the public from November 26.
Mottisfont’s exhibition highlights Pauline’s influence as a children’s illustrator in the centenary year of her birth. As well as creating the original artwork for the Narnia series, Baynes illustrated for J.R.R. Tolkien yet still remains largely unknown.
After studying at the Slade School of Fine Art, Baynes was first commissioned for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in 1949. Despite facing some difficulties in her working relationship with C. S. Lewis, Baynes revisited Narnia throughout her life, illustrating several versions of The Chronicles of Narnia themselves and other books inspired by the world and its inhabitants.
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Tales of Narnia: the artwork of Pauline Baynes, runs from Saturday, September 24 to Sunday, November 6. The Mottisfont art gallery is open from 11am until 4.30pm daily (closing at 4pm from Tuesday, November 1). Normal property admission price applies and remains free for National Trust and Art Fund members.
Mottisfont is a a historical priory, garden and country estate in Romsey, managed by the National Trust.
For more go to nationaltrust.org.uk/mottisfont or call 01794 340757.
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