Bewick, THOMAS, to whom the modern revival of the art of wood-engraving is mainly due, was born at Cherryburn, Ovingham, Northumberland, August 12, 1753. His father was a farmer and the lessee of a colliery, and during his early years he enjoyed the ordinary life of a country boy, greatly interested in field-sports, and laying the foundation of that knowledge of the face of nature and of the appearance and habits of her living creatures, which afterwards so strongly influenced his artistic productions. Soon he began to depict the things that he had seen, embellishing the margins of his school-books, and sketching with chalk on floors and on the flat stones of the churchyard. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to Ralph Beilby, a Newcastle engraver, who turned out work of the most miscellaneous description, and the first woodcuts that he produced were a series of diagrams illustrating Dr Hutton's Mensuration, published in 1768-70. In 1776, after the expiry of his apprenticeship, Bewick settled as an engraver in London; but the ways of the metropolis were little to his taste, and in less than a year he returned to Newcastle. Soon after, he became the partner of his former master, and taking his brother John Bewick (born 1760, died 1795) as an apprentice, he executed, probably with his assistance, the woodcuts for an edition of Select Fables, published in 1784. Towards the close of the following year Bewick began to work upon the blocks of the animals and of the vignettes and tailpieces of his History of Quadrupeds, issued in 1790, which fully established his reputation as an engraver. They were mainly drawn and cut in the evenings, after the ordinary routine of the shop was ended; and the accompanying letterpress was compiled by his partner. During the progress of this work he executed in 1789 his 'Chillingham Bull,' a large woodcut, which some have regarded as his masterpiece.
The success of the Quadrupeds led to the publication of a similar History of British Birds, in which the artist's highest powers were manifested, and which, like his other great works, has appeared in numerous successive editions. The first volume, dealing with land-birds, was issued by the firm in 1797, and the second, on water-birds, in which he was aided by such talented pupils as Johnson and Clennell, was published by Bewick alone in 1804. The figures of the various birds are rendered with the utmost spirit and accuracy, and as examples of powerful and finely decorative arrangements of black and white, nothing could surpass his 'Eagle Owl,' his 'Short-eared Owl,' and his 'Goldfinch.' The tailpieces are vivid renderings of landscape and of rustic life, and are frequently touched with a homely and most vigorous humour. In technical method these illustrations show an immense advance upon all previous examples of wood-engraving. Self-taught, and working from his own designs, Bewick instinctively adopted such methods as were in truest harmony with the especial capabilities of his material, working with white lines into the lights, from the black tint given by the untouched block. Each touch of his graver is laid with intention and definite meaning; and while later engravers have far surpassed him in finesse and manual dexterity, and have produced on wood marvellous imitations of other styles of engraving and surprising transcriptions of the tone and texture of brush-work, Bewick's cuts will always maintain their place as classic in their kind, as standard examples of right aims and true direction in wood-engraving. Numerous other works were produced by Bewick, but we need only mention the Æsop's Fables, published in 1818, upon which he was engaged for six years. In these illustrations he was assisted by William Temple and William Harvey, and by his son, Robert Elliott Bewick (born 1788, died 1849), who became his partner in 1812, and also took part in the cuts for an unfinished History of British Fishes, published in 1862 in his father's charming autobiography. This admirable artist and most estimable man died at Gateshead, November 8, 1828. Interesting collections of his water-colours, drawings, and woodcuts, the gift of his daughters, are in the British Museum and the Newcastle Natural History Library.
See Hugo's Bewick Collector (1866), and 'Supplement' (1868); Life, by Thomson (1882); Bewick and his Pupils, by Dobson (1884); and for an account of his technical method, Jackson and Chatto's History of Wood-engraving (1861; the first edition appeared in 1839), Linton's Hints on Wood-engraving (1879), and Hamerton's Graphic Arts (1882).