Cor Blok is a Dutch artist who discovered The Lord of the Rings a few years after its publication, in the 1950s, and set out to create a series of "pictures to accompany" the text. Between 1958 and 1962, he painted over 140 pictures in a very original technique involving gouache and layers of silk paper. Blok met J.R.R. Tolkien himself in 1961, and the author bought several of his artworks. Blok's art is delightful in its minimalism. He believes in omitting from the image anything that can be removed. The resulting pictures are still remarkably readable, and play on textures and a muted colour palette that are really pleasant.