Designs for Christmas
The talented Pauline Baynes (1922–2008), the original illustrator of the seven “Narnia” books by C.S. Lewis and of writings by J.R.R. Tolkien, also produced thousands of images for books by other authors, and for magazines, advertisements, and ephemera such as bookplates and greeting cards. Many examples of her work, including some of the finest graphic art of the 20th century, are held in the Chapin Library.
To celebrate the holiday season, a selection of Christmas cards with art by Pauline Baynes is on display on the main level of Sawyer Library. These reveal some of the wide range of styles she brought to her art, to suit a particular mood or purpose: from medieval cartoons and patterning to delicate Persian miniatures, from painters of the Northern Renaissance such as Pieter Brueghel to 15th-century books of hours, from the England of Queen Victoria to the world of nature. Some of the pictures were used first as book or magazine illustrations – one card shows a scene with Father Christmas from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis – while others were specially commissioned.
Pauline Baynes: Designs for Christmas is on view at Sawyer Library through January 3, 2011. – WGH
Shown is one of the artist’s personal Christmas cards, from the Chapin Library’s Pauline Baynes Archive (© the Williams College Oxford Programme; all rights reserved).