OD&D The iconic painting for the original D&D Basic Set is on display in a museum!

zenopus · Aug 20, 2021

David Sutherland's iconic painting for the original D&D Basic Set (1977) - aka Holmes Basic - is on currently exhibit in a museum for the first time ever! It's part of "Enchanted", a survey of fantasy illustration at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, which runs through Oct 31st of this year.

I visited two weeks ago, and below is my best photo of it. I've also written a blog post for the Zenopus Archives about my visit:

The Holmes Basic Set Cover Art: Exhibited!

zenopusarchives.blogspot.com

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Oofta · Aug 20, 2021

There has been technically far better paintings of fighting dragons throughout the years, but this one will always hold a special place for me. Kind of cool that it not only survived (a lot of the original artwork did not) but that it's in a museum.

Lyxen · Aug 20, 2021

If you look at the Art of D&D (excellent book), you will see how limited their budget was for illustrations, and honestly that one is not the worse by far from that period.

Ralif Redhammer · Aug 20, 2021

The stories you hear about pieces of art being rescued from going into the dumpster (and those that weren't) back in the old TSR days are just heartbreaking.

Oofta said:
There has been technically far better paintings of fighting dragons throughout the years, but this one will always hold a special place for me. Kind of cool that it not only survived (a lot of the original artwork did not) but that it's in a museum.

It's not the basic set that introduced me to gaming, but it's certainly a legendary piece of art. The way everything is positioned, you can easily imagine yourself as a third person in the party coming face-to-face with that dragon.

Sacrosanct · Aug 20, 2021

Lyxen said:
If you look at the Art of D&D (excellent book), you will see how limited their budget was for illustrations, and honestly that one is not the worse by far from that period.

Tim Kask did an interview years ago where he said TSR was super lucky, because as editor for Dragon, artists were sending submissions just for the chance to be used in a TSR product, and they didn't have to pay hardly anything for them. IIRC, that's how Erol Otis got started, by sending in his piece for the remorhaz in the respective Dragon magazine.

Different times indeed!

As an aside, I can't help but notice that the TSR museum officially opened not long ago in Lake Geneva, and they don't even have many of the really iconic pieces, like this one.

Northern Phoenix · Aug 20, 2021

Oofta said:
There has been technically far better paintings of fighting dragons throughout the years, but this one will always hold a special place for me. Kind of cool that it not only survived (a lot of the original artwork did not) but that it's in a museum.

I was gonna say, i respect it for its place in DnD history, but this kind of art is definitely not for me, having grown up with the pure magic of digital fantasy art. Sort of like the Model T compared to a modern electric self-driving AI car.

LordEntrails · Aug 20, 2021

EDIT: something like this first part got deleted...

That picture brings back good memories. Yes it's not actually very ... refined. But it is evocative. As mentioned, one can easily imagine themselves being part of the scene. Glad to see it has been saved and is being displayed. Thanks for the picture of it, pretty good image. I also tend to remember the blue/white version of it too.

Sacrosanct said:
the TSR museum officially opened

Why does this place not interest me at all? Seems to me to be not much more than one of those roadside tourist traps designed to lure in grognards who should know better. Anyone familiar with "The Thing?" yea, about the same quality I'm sure.

Northern Phoenix said:
compared to a modern electric self-driving AI car.

I appreciate the sentiment, but self-driving cars do not exist in the real world. Just ask the Society of Automotive Engineers.

Yora · Aug 20, 2021

Oofta said:
There has been technically far better paintings of fighting dragons throughout the years, but this one will always hold a special place for me. Kind of cool that it not only survived (a lot of the original artwork did not) but that it's in a museum.

With all kinds of illustrations, there is of course always the technical aspect. But the even bigger impact comes from the artist envisioning an expressive motive. There are numerous pieces of very simple illustrations in early D&D that are extremely evocative.

Really not a fan of the brushwork in this one, but I think the composition is fantastic.

Oofta · Aug 21, 2021

Yora said:
With all kinds of illustrations, there is of course always the technical aspect. But the even bigger impact comes from the artist envisioning an expressive motive. There are numerous pieces of very simple illustrations in early D&D that are extremely evocative.

Really not a fan of the brushwork in this one, but I think the composition is fantastic.

Yeah, the composition is probably part of the reason I'm still fond of it.

Yora · Aug 22, 2021

I recently came across this image and it just wouldn't work in color.

OD&D The iconic painting for the original D&D Basic Set is on display in a museum!

zenopus

Doomed Wizard

The Holmes Basic Set Cover Art: Exhibited!

Oofta

Legend

Lyxen

Great Old One

Ralif Redhammer

Legend

Sacrosanct

Legend

Northern Phoenix

Adventurer

LordEntrails

Hero

Yora

Legend

Oofta

Legend

Yora

Legend

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