English engraver and natural history author (1753–1828)
Thomas Bewick
Portrait by James Ramsay
Born
c.(1753-08-11)11 August 1753
Mickley, Northumberland, England
Died
8 November 1828(1828-11-08) (aged 75)
Gateshead, Durham, England
Occupations
Wood engraver
natural history author
Spouse
Isabella Elliott
(m. 1786; died 1826)
Children
4, including Jane
Thomas Bewick (c. 11 August 1753 – 8 November 1828) was an English wood-engraver and natural history author. Early in his career he took on all kinds of work such as engraving cutlery, making the wood blocks for advertisements, and illustrating children's books. He gradually turned to illustrating, writing and publishing his own books, gaining an adult audience for the fine illustrations in A History of Quadrupeds.
His career began when he was apprenticed to engraver Ralph Beilby in Newcastle upon Tyne. He became a partner in the business and eventually took it over. Apprentices whom Bewick trained include John Anderson, Luke Clennell, and William Harvey, who in their turn became well known as painters and engravers.
Bewick is best known for his A History of British Birds, which is admired today mainly for its wood engravings, especially the small, sharply observed, and often humorous vignettes known as tail-pieces. The book was the forerunner of all modern field guides. He notably illustrated editions of Aesop's Fables throughout his life.
He is "usually considered the founder of wood-engraving" as "the first to realize its full potentialities",[1] using metal-engraving tools to cut hard boxwood across the grain, producing printing blocks that could be integrated with metal type, but were much more detailed and durable than traditional woodcuts.[1] The result was high-quality illustration at a low price.
^ abGriffiths, Anthony (1996). Prints and Printmaking: an Introduction to the History and Techniques (2nd ed.). British Museum Press. pp. 22–24. ISBN 978-0-7141-2608-1.
ThomasBewick (c. 11 August 1753 – 8 November 1828) was an English wood-engraver and natural history author. Early in his career he took on all kinds...
with the other Arctic swan species. Bewick's swan was named in 1830 by William Yarrell after the engraver ThomasBewick, who specialised in illustrations...
A History of British Birds is a natural history book by ThomasBewick, published in two volumes. Volume 1, Land Birds, appeared in 1797. Volume 2, Water...
plates of engravings, and have a distinctive white-on-black character. ThomasBewick developed the wood engraving technique in Great Britain at the end of...
drovers; they are now extinct. The cur was described by Ralph Beilby and ThomasBewick in their 1790 work A general history of quadrupeds, as well as by Sydenham...
Pauline Bewick (4 September 1935 – 28 July 2022) was an English-born Irish artist. Bewick was born in Northumberland, England on 4 September 1935, and...
First Part of an Inventory of the Vignettes of ThomasBewick and the Beilby-Bewick Workshop" (PDF). The Bewick Society. October 2012. p. 720. Retrieved 2...
foreman. Both ThomasBewick from nearby Cherryburn and George Stephenson from nearby Wylam had relatives who were dyers. One of Bewick's woodcuts is entitled...
strength and greyhound shape as well as its scarcity. Writing in 1790, ThomasBewick described it as the largest and most beautiful of the dog kind; about...
the crossbills were described as "unknown" in England). The engraver ThomasBewick wrote that "It sometimes is met with in great numbers in this country...
once believed to have the powers of an oracle. For that festival, in ThomasBewick's time, geese were driven in thousand-strong flocks on foot from farms...
(PDF) on 24 April 2012. Bewick, Thomas (1847) [1804]. A History of British Birds. Volume 1: Land Birds. Newcastle: R. E. Bewick. p. 372. "Home". Greatbustard...
animals. Simon Schama described the famous contemporary woodcut by ThomasBewick as "an image of massive power ... the great, perhaps the greatest icon...
years ago in Italy were made from boxwood. The British wood-engraver ThomasBewick pioneered the use of boxwood blocks for wood-engraving. In Old English...
(subscription required) Bewick, Thomas (1847) [1804]. A History of British Birds, Volume 2, Water Birds. Newcastle: R. E. Bewick. p. 49. Cocker, Mark; Mabey...
British Birds. 96: 332–339. Bewick, Thomas (1847) [1804]. A History of British Birds, Volume II, "Water Birds". R. E. Bewick. p. 44. Haines, Perry (20 August...
days. Fulmars have for centuries been hunted for food. The engraver ThomasBewick wrote in 1804 that "Pennant, speaking of those [birds] which breed on...
Retrieved 29 April 2010. Bewick, Thomas (1847) [1804]. A History of British Birds. Vol. 2: Water Birds. Newcastle: R.E. Bewick. pp. 405–406. Linnaeus,...
critically acclaimed biographies of Elizabeth Gaskell, William Hogarth, ThomasBewick, and Edward Lear, and a history and joint biography of the Lunar Society...
Army Recruiting and Initial Training Command 2021–2022 Succeeded by ThomasBewick Preceded by Christopher Tickell Deputy Chief of the General Staff 2022–2024...
and 1813. The originally Older Scots "cornecrake" was popularised by ThomasBewick, who used this term in his 1797 A History of British Birds. Other Scots...
Eighteenth Century Criminal Biography". Law, Crime and History. 6: 2: 54–70. Bewick, et al. Robin Hood : a Collection of All the Ancient Poems, Songs, and Ballads...
Jane Bewick (1787–1881) was the eldest daughter of Isabella and wood-engraver ThomasBewick. She edited her father's biography and supervised his works...
breed is from Dalmatia; he referred to it as Dalmatian. The book by ThomasBewick, A General History of Quadrupeds, published in 1790 refers to the breed...
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