The Great Goblin by Alan Lee (1997)

This 1997 watercolor illustration by Alan Lee, titled The Great Goblin (alternatively known as The Goblin-king), brings to life a dramatic and chaotic moment from Chapter 4 of The Hobbit. The painting captures Thorin Oakenshield's company captured and hauled deep into the underground caverns of the Misty Mountains, where the monstrous, bloated Great Goblin sits on a stone throne brandishing a heavy club. On the left side of the composition, a goblin holds aloft the glowing, brilliant blade of Orcrist (the Goblin-cleaver), a legendary sword of Gondolin whose sudden reveals throws the entire cavern into a frenzy of shock and terror. Lee's mastery of crowded composition, pale skin tones, and subterranean shadows perfectly translates Tolkien's grotesque yet gritty depiction of goblin-kind, setting the stage for Gandalf's sudden, explosive rescue.