Thomas Bewick
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Thomas Bewick ( Thomas Sword Good , 1827)
Barn Owl , in: History of British Birds (1847)
Thomas Bewick (* probably August 10, 1753 in Cherryburn near Newcastle upon Tyne , Northumberland ; † November 8, 1828 in Gateshead , Tyne and Wear ) was an English graphic artist and the inventor of wood engraving .
In contrast to the traditional woodcut technique, he worked with the particularly hard wood of the boxwood . This is not cut lengthways, as is the case with woodcuts, but as end grain across the grain and is therefore particularly resistant to pressure . The tool used is the burin , with which the wood is engraved in a labor-intensive process.
The woodcut, almost superseded by copperplate engraving, became an economically interesting reproduction process with the development of wood engraving, which was used very frequently in the 19th century.
Life dates
- Born in Cherryburn, Eltringham , Northumberland on August 10 or 12, 1753, to a farming family .
- 1767–1774, apprentice and journeyman as an engraver . During this time, the first work is done on wood
- 1785 begins work on A General History of Quadrupeds
- 1786 marriage to Isabella Elliot
- 1790 Publication of A General History of Quadrupeds
- 1797 publication of British Birds, Land Birds
- 1818 Publication of Fables of Aesop
- 1827 meeting with John James Audubon
- 1828, November 8th Thomas Bewick dies.
Public collections containing graphics by Thomas Bewick
- Edmonton Art Gallery, Canada
- Central Library of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. This collection also includes a large group of printing plates, as well as drawings and watercolors by Thomas Bewick.
- Library Collections - Managed by Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums on behalf of Newcastle University
- Thomas Bewick in the Natural History Society of Northumbria in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK. This is also where the greatest number of drawings related to Bewick's work can be found.
- prints and drawings by Thomas Bewick in the British Museum , London, Great Britain
- Houghton Library, Department of Printing and Graphic Arts, Chicago, USA
- Newberry Library, Chicago, USA. In 1944 Robert Hunter Middleton founded the private printing company "Cherryburn Press". He owned a large number of original Bewick wooden blocks that Middleton had shipped to Chicago during World War II. His collection consisted of one hundred Bewick printing blocks, which he later gave to the Newberry Library.
Works in which graphics by Thomas Bewick can be found
- A new Family Herbal: Or popular Account of the Natures and Properties of the various Plants used in Medicine, Diet, and the Arts he Plants drawn from Nature, by Henderson and engraved on Wood by Thomas Bewick . Phillips, London 1810 urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 2-148273 Digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf .
- 1800 Woodcuts by Thomas Bewick and His School In: Blanche Cirker (Ed.): Dover Pictorial Archive Series. Dover Publications Inc., New York 1969, ISBN 0-486-20766-8 .
- Cherryburn prints. Volume I: Discovered Subjects I to X. Volume II. Discovered Subjects XI to XX. The Cherryburn Press, Chicago 1973.
literature
- Iain Bain: Bewick, Thomas (1753–1828), wood-engraver. In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of May 2005
- Henry Austin Dobson: Bewick, Thomas . In: Leslie Stephen (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 4: Beal - Beaver. MacMillan & Co, Smith, Elder & Co., New York City / London 1885, pp 455 - 460 (English).
- Thomas Bewick: The sketchbook of 1792-1799 . Ed .: Nigel Tattersfield, edited with an introduction and commentary. Jarndyce, London 2017, ISBN 978-1-910156-15-5 .
- Bewick, Thomas . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 3 : Austria - Bisectrix . London 1910, p. 837 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).
- Jenny Uglow : Nature's Engraver. A Life of Thomas Bewick. The University of Chicago Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-226-82391-1 .
Web links
Commons : Thomas Bewick - collection of images, videos and audio files
- History of the woodcut and the influence of Thomas Bewick
- Thomas Bewick: Tale-pieces is at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham. In: The Guardian April 16, 2009
- The Bewick Society
- Biography of R. Hunter Middleton , inventory of the R. Hunter Middleton Papers, 1921-1985. Newberry Library Special Collections, 2008.
Individual evidence
- ^ Gunther Thiem: Brief history of the woodcut. In: The German woodcut in the 20th century. Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 1984, ISBN 3-496-01024-X , p. 8.
- ↑ blog.twmuseums.org.uk
- ↑ ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: nhsn.ncl.ac.uk )
- ↑ ( page no longer available , search in web archives: britishmuseum.org )
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bewick, Thomas |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English graphic artist and wood cutter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 10, 1753 or August 12, 1753 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Cherryburn near Newcastle upon Tyne , Northumberland |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 8, 1828 |
| Place of death | Gateshead , Tyne and Wear |