Nice find ! Never spotted such difference before !
All English versions (USA, UK, Australia) are similar. German version is similar to the French one.

Hi, I'm the one who mentioned it on the French forum and FYI, I even asked directly to Jeff Easley about it. He doesn't seem to remember about it so no explanation so far...  

sekoia wrote:Hi, I'm the one who mentioned it on the French forum and FYI, I even asked directly to Jeff Easley about it. He doesn't seem to remember about it so no explanation so far...  

Great find Sekoia !!
As Loki said, it is just incredible we, collectors, hadn't noticed this difference before.  It is surely due to the fact we do not imagine an illustration might have any difference between an original version and a translated one.
Since your find, I checked other AD&D/D&D items showing this Easley illustration, among them  
the 1984 puzzle like this one

** expired/removed eBay auction **

and the miniature blisters from Ral Partha like this one

** expired/removed eBay auction **

Each has the same illustration as the original PH.

That is so peculiar.

There's nothing that the cowl/hood is blocking, so the removal of the little piece has to have been done to deliberately make it look or more like something specific or less like something specific, I think.

The wacky pope/cardinal hats are the only thing I can think of right now.
https://www.google.com/search?num=10&hl ... Q-z1Uoiw-0

Is there another difference between them? Where the wizards left arm of the cloak folds, there's a golden mark or amulet there in the upper one? Or is that just the image

This is really interesting. I can think of one other possibility, which is that the painting could have been damaged in that area at some point and then this particular fix was done, perhaps by someone else. I have a couple of paintings of Jeff Easley's (one from '83 and another from '88) and have seen several others from 83-84 and I can say firsthand that he paints VERY thin. He doesn't "gob" on the paint with much thickness at all, it's very delicate. In the case of the earlier ones I have and have seen, it's sometimes on illustration paper that was adhered to illustration board. So if someone's not handling his art that well or things are placed on top of it that shouldn't be, the painting could definitely be damaged. I can't quite remember all the details right now, but I think there's a story about the artists at one point switching to paint on masonite (a much harder board) after Keith Parkinson mentioned to them that it's more difficult for someone else to mess with. (I guess the others hadn't considered that previously).

I do have the French version of this book as well to compare against the US version. One thing I noticed is that if you look closely at the French version where the top of the wizard's hood is, you can see a faint outline of where the original hood is supposed to be, as if it were intended to be completed in the upper area.

I think you guys are right in looking to track down someone who put together the French version to see if they remember anything specifically about this.