Which 1945 short story by J.R.R. Tolkien features the painter Niggle?

Leaf by Niggle is J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1945 short story featuring the painter Niggle.

The story follows Niggle, an artist who keeps trying to paint a vast tree but becomes distracted by small details and practical obligations. It was first published in the Dublin Review in January 1945. Unlike Tolkien’s major Middle-earth narratives, it is a compact allegory about artistic work, duty, mortality, and the relationship between small acts and larger purposes.

Readers often connect Niggle’s tree with Tolkien’s own creative life, although the story should not be reduced to a simple autobiography. Tolkien’s experiences as a scholar, writer, illustrator, and Christian thinker all provide useful context for its themes.

The story later appeared in collections including Tree and Leaf, published in 1964. Its imagery also resonates with Tolkien’s broader interest in trees, leaves, subcreation, and the way an imagined fragment can belong to a larger world. The title is often written in italics because it is the name of the story, not the painter.