Who illustrated the original Narnia books by C.S. Lewis?

Pauline Baynes illustrated the original Narnia books by C.S. Lewis. Her detailed black-and-white drawings appeared in the first editions and helped establish the visual identity of the series.

Baynes was born in Brighton in 1922 and studied at the Slade School of Fine Art. She began illustrating books during the 1940s and was introduced to J.R.R. Tolkien by C.S. Lewis. Tolkien commissioned her to illustrate several works, and Lewis later asked her to work on The Chronicles of Narnia.

Her illustrations include maps, chapter decorations, and character scenes. The images were not merely decorative: they helped readers distinguish the many creatures, locations, and episodes in Lewis’s fictional world.

Baynes is sometimes confused with illustrators associated with other British children’s classics, such as Arthur Rackham or E.H. Shepard. Shepard illustrated Winnie-the-Pooh, while Baynes became especially linked with Lewis’s Narnia and Tolkien’s shorter works.