by Mr Hooper » January 26th, 2010, 12:07 am
I love the Baynes illustrations myself, but as for Aslan, I suppose that the image Lewis had was a very different one to the kind of lion Baynes drew. Harry Blamires, who was a pupil and later a friend of Lewis, was to recall the following:
"One of Harry's favorite memories is from around 1954, about the time the Narnia books were releasing. "We talked about the illustrations," Harry says. "Lewis appreciated the endearing charm of Pauline Baynes's work, but he was excited by another artist's picture of Aslan. He dived down to a bottom shelf of a bookcase, picked up a volume, opened it and laid it on my knees. It was a French edition of THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE. 'That's what I mean,' he said, pointing to a picture of Aslan leaping, streaking across the page, massive and powerful to the point of almost being terrifying. All the cuddliness was gone. There could be no question of stroking this awesome beast."
(This is from the author notes on the website Faithful Reader)
Anyone seen/can post this "French" Aslan I wonder?