Denis Gordeev

Denis Gordeev
Biographical Information
Born	3 April, 1964
Education	Moscow Surikov State Academic Institute of Fine Arts
Images	Images by Denis Gordeev
Location	Moscow, Russia

Denis Dmitrievich Gordeev is a Russian illustrator most known for illustrating many works of J.R.R. Tolkien.

History

Born on 3 April 1964 in Moscow, in the family of the Moscow artist Dmitry Ivanovich Gordeev.

From the fifth grade of secondary school, Gordeev simultaneously studied at an evening art school. In 1978, he entered the Moscow Art School at the Moscow Surikov State Academic Institute of Fine Arts, from which he graduated in 1982. In the same year he entered the Moscow Surikov State Academic Institute of Fine Arts in the department of easel painting of the Faculty of Painting.

In 1983, he was drafted into the army. After completing his service, he continued his studies at the Institute (workshop of Tahir Salahov), from which he graduated in 1990.

After graduation, he began to study book graphics. The first book he illustrated was Tolkien's Tree and Leaf, published by Gnosis Publishing House in 1991.

Gordeev gained fame after illustrating Tolkien's fantasy epic The Lord of the Rings, published by the Severo-Zapad Publishing House in 1992. It was one of the first editions of the trilogy with a huge circulation of about a million copies.

Since that time, Gordeev has illustrated many books for adults and children in various publishing houses. His illustrations to the works of C. Gozzi, E. T. A. Hoffmann, O. Wilde, R. Kipling, R. L. Stevenson, A. Dumas, J. Verne, A. Sapkowski, R. Zelazny are widely known.

Published Artwork

Multiple editions

• The Hobbit
• The Fellowship of the Ring
• The Two Towers
• The Return of the King
• The Silmarillion
• The Children of Húrin
• Tales from the Perilous Realm
• Smith of Wootton Major
• The Fall of Arthur

Quotations

”

When I draw illustrations, I have nothing but text. I am a man without imagination, what I see is what I sing. When I read, I have a mental picture of what is happening, and that's what I'm doing. I'm drawing exactly what I've read and imagined. I read the description of d'Artagnan or Gandalf, imagined them, and they are by no means Mikhail Sergeyevich Boyarsky or Ian McKellen, they are completely different people.

Denis Gordeev, Interview.

External links

• Interview

Illustrators of The Lord of the Rings
Internal art	J.R.R. Tolkien (1937-present) · Eric Fraser/Ingahild Grathmer (The Folio Society: 1979, 1992-present) · Denis Gordeev (1992-present) · Alan Lee (1997-present)
Cover art only	J.R.R. Tolkien (1937-present) · Pauline Baynes (1970-1989) · Roger Garland (1983-1991) · John Howe (1991-present) · Ted Nasmith (1990) · Geoff Taylor (1999)