In 1975 Greg and Tim Hildebrandt began an epic 3 year journey in their artistic careers. They spent 8 months of that year painting the 14 paintings for the 1976 J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings calendar published by Ballantine Books. As they entered the world of Middle Earth they had no idea where this journey would lead them. But they were fascinated with Tolkien's world, his environments and his characters. This calendar was the first fully painted depiction of the Lord of the Rings. It was so immediately successful that Ballantine signed up for four more years.
By the publication of the 1997 calendar the sales reached over a million copies which was unheard of in publishing. They became known around the world as The Brothers Hildebrandt. This was a name given to them by Judy Lynn Del Rey the senior Sci-Fi Fantasy editor at Ballantine. One can only assume it was a take off on the Brothers Grimm. But it stuck.
The Balrog is a frightening creature that Tolkien created to destroy Gandalf. This is the scene that the Balrog succeeds in killing Galdalf while the Orcs look on.
The Lord of the Rings art and the original Star Wars movie poster painting are the most well know of all the Brothers Hildebrandt paintings. Greg and Tim went on to create a third calendar for 1978. But even though they had a contract with Ballantine to do a fourth one they decided it was time to leave Middle Earth and went on to their own fantasy novel, URSHURAK, which was on the NY Times best sellers list for six weeks.
Very few of the original 42 Tolkien paintings from the 1976, 1977 and 1978 calendars are available today.
Artists Information
Tim Hildebrandt was one half of the artist duo the Brothers Hilderbrandt who are famously known for their work on the early theatrical posters for Star Wars and their Lord of the Rings calendar illustrations. The Brothers Hilderbrandt's other notable works include the concept poster for Young Frankenstein, Magic: The Gathering and Harry Potter illustrations.
Greg Hilderbrandt is an american painter/comic book artist, and twin brother of Tim Hilderbrandt who is also an artist. Collectively they worked on numerous comic books, movie posters and trading card for many years until Tim's unfortunate passing in 2006. Individually Greg has worked on album covers, pin-up art and currently the cover artist for IDW's Star Trek. The brothers Hilderbrandt's most notable work includes, The lord of the rings calender illustrations, Star Wars movie posters and the Magic the Gathering trading cards.