The Hobbit, drawn by François Maumont

A few days ago, the French artist François Maumont shared sad news on Twitter.
Despite a application file sent in association with the Editions Gallimard (illustrated French publishing house, publisher of the La Pleiade collection) and after a long period of waiting, the complete absence of response from the people responsible for decisions (in this case , I don't know if it's Harper Collins, the Estate, both...) made him decide to abandon this project that he had been working on for several years.

Following this, he shared an incredibly complete folder with an impressive number of drawings in a childish and evocative style reminiscent in particular of those of J. Catlin.

I find it extremely unfortunate that he did not get a response and that this project could not come to fruition. I would have loved to see an illustrated edition with these drawings in a style perfectly suited to The Hobbit.

(I'm only adding one photo so to not overload the thread but I invite the most curious to go see the folder whose link I shared above )