The Engrossing Engravings of the Wonderful Woodcutter

May 19, 2013

nn
n

n The final member of my triumvirate of seminalnEnglish ornithologists is Thomas Bewick, a figure far removed from thengentility enjoyed by Waterton and White.

n

Thomas Bewick

n

nBewick was born in 1753, at CherryburnnHouse, Mickley, Northumberland, the son of a tenant farmer, and was sent to thenvillage school but after repeated beatings by the schoolmaster, he became andetermined truant and instead spent his days in the countryside, observingnnature.

n

Cherryburn House, Mickley

n

nHis great love was drawing, and he covered every surface available tonhim (including gravestones and the floor of the church porch) with chalkndrawings of birds, animals and hunting scenes.

n

Thomas Bewick – Vignette

n

nWhen given paper, watercoloursnand paintbrushes, he sold his early works his rural neighbours, and he becamenknown locally as quite the little artist. Unsurprisingly then, at fourteen, henwas apprenticed to a copperplate engraver, Ralph Beilby of Newcastle, and onenof his earliest jobs was to provide illustrations for Charles Hutton’s book Mensuration (1770), for which Beilby recommended engravings on wood.

n

Bewick’s illustration from Hutton’s Mensuration

n

nThere arenmany advantages in this method, not least that text and illustrations can benprinted at the same time, as the wood block engravings can be fixed into thensame frame, at the same level, as the letters. A wood engraving differs from anwood cut in that it is cut into the end grain of a block of wood, rather thannacross the grain of a piece of wood.

n

Example of a Woodcut – St Bevis of Hampton c. 1690

n

nBewick used box wood, which is both verynhard and very close grained, and he used metal engravers’ tools, allowing himnto achieve a very high level of detail in his illustrations.

n

Thomas Bewick

n

nWood engravingsnare relief prints, the areas to be printed in black are left on the surface ofnthe block with the white areas cut away, into the grain of the wood (in a metalnengraving, the black areas and lines are cut into the metal and these groovesnare filled with ink, with the surplus ink scraped and rubbed away from thensurface, and the print is made at a much greater pressure than a reliefnengraving.

n

Thomas Bewick – Hedgehog

n

nThe intaglio printing method wears away the printing plate muchnfaster than a relief print, quickly loosing detail – a wood block, however,nwill last for many hundreds of thousands of impressions, (a capital letternblock cut by Bewick for a Newcastle newspaper was used over two million times).

n

Copperplate Engraving of Eagle from Francis Willughby – Ornithology – 1678

n

nBeilby encouraged Bewick’s talent and he was keen to learn, quickly becoming anmaster wood engraver; his habit of constantly drawing as a boy had given him anmastery of line that was perfectly suited to the medium.

n

Wood Engraving of Eagle from Thomas Bewick – History of British Birds – 1797

n

nHe providednillustrations for a great many ‘moral’ tales, little books intended to instilnthe better sentiments into children, as well as letterheads, billheads,ncommercial illustrations and advertisements. After completing hisnapprenticeship, Bewick moved to London for a short time, but he did not enjoynlife in the capital and moved back to Newcastle, where he went into partnershipnwith his former master, and took his brother John on as an apprentice.

n

Thomas Bewick – Early example of the Praying Sailor (see later example below)

n

nThomasnBewick first came to public attention with an illustration called The OldnHound, which won a seven-guinea premium from The Society for thenEncouragement of the Arts, and his engravings for Gay’s Fables and ansmall volume of Aesop’s Select Fables.

n

Thomas Bewick – The Old Hound

n

nHe proposed, andncirculated a prospectus, for a work which would be issued as A History ofnQuadrupeds (1790), and whilst this prospectus was circulating, Bewick wasninvited to visit Marmaduke Tunstall, of Wycliffe, a prominent naturalist of thenday, famed for his museum. Bewick was commissioned to produce a large engravingn(the largest he ever made, at 5½ inches by 7¾ inches), of the rare wild cattlenat Chillingham Park, an isolated population of ancient undomesticated cattlenthat is claimed to have its ancestry in the earliest indigenous oxen ofnBritain.

n

Thomas Bewick – The Chillingham Bull

n

nBewick’s masterpiece is a triumph of the wood engraver’s art, and onlynsix of the original prints are known to exist. The block was inadvertently leftnin direct sunlight and it split, although it was later clamped into a gun-metalnframe and a limited number of prints were pulled from the block.

n

Thomas Bewick – Spanish Pointer – A History of Quadrupeds – 1790

n

nThe Quadrupedsnwas an immediate, popular success but it was eclipsed by the wonderful Historynof British Birds (2 vols, Land Birds 1797, Water Birds 1804),nwhich is the work inextricably to Bewick’s name.

n

Thomas Bewick – History of British Birds – 1797

n

nWherever possible, Bewick drewnfrom life or from prepared skins, notably spending a great deal of time withnTunstall at Wycliffe. The keen observations make the work, and althoughncriticism has been raised that Bewick was no scientist, I’d argue that anscientist could not have produced a better book.

n

Thomas Bewick – Kingfisher – History of British Birds – 1797

n

nBewick studied whatnornithological literature was available to him but leavened his text withnpersonal observations and a lifetime’s experience in the field.

n

Thomas Bewick – Magpie – History of British Birds – 1797

n

nThe birds arengrouped into families, with each species illustrated with a meticulous woodnengraving, the common, alternative and Latin names, a physical description,nnotes on the habits and distribution.

n

Thomas Bewick – Pheasant – History of British Birds – 1797

n

nOf equal interest, and of greater charm,nare the vignettes that Bewick adds to the end of some entries. These depictntiny fragments of rural life, often humorous, sometimes tragic, alwaysninteresting; we see hunting, shooting and fishing, ships, suicides and scares,nbirth, life and death. Here’s a selection for you to enjoy.

nnn
n

n

nnn
n

n