BEWICK, hint, Thomas, English wood engraver: b. Cherryburn, Northumberland, 12 Aug. 1753; d. Gateshead, 8 Nov. 1828. He early showed a great talent for drawing, and was apprenticed to an engraver in Newcastle. The celebrated Dr. Hutton, of Woolwich, then a schoolmaster in Newcastle, was preparing his great work on mensuration, and having em ployed Bewick's master in getting up the wood cuts for illustrating it, the execution of these was entrusted to the young apprentice. Bew ick performed the work so admirably that his master advised him to turn his attention to wood-engraving, and accordingly with this view he proceeded to London. He returned, however, to Newcastle after a short time, and established himself there in partnership with his former master. His turn of mind led him to the study of natural objects, more especially animals. In 1779 appeared his edition of Fables' ; in 1784 'Select Fables); in 1789 his large wood cut the (Chillingham Ball,' one of his most ambitious works; and in 1790 appeared his 'History of Quadrupeds,' the beauty of the illustrations of which attracted universal attention, so superior were they to anything hitherto produced by the art of wood engraving. In 1797 appeared the first, and in
1804 the second volume of his 'British Birds,' generally regarded as the finest of his works. Bewick has never been surpassed in his spirited delineations of animals and the admirable naturalness with which the accessories and backgrounds of the drawings, such as grass, and other rural objects, are represented. The tail-pieces to chapters throughout his works are of the highest excellence, and often display a rich vein of humor. His illustrated edition of (Xsop's Fables' appeared in 1818. He was the reviver of the art of wood-en graving; he was one of the earliest to cut upon the end of the wood instead of along it; and he invented what is technically called the (white line)) in wood-engraving. Consult his (Memoir) (London 1846); Clement, (Painters, Sculptors, Architects, and Engravers) (Boston 1899); Dobson, (Thomas Bewick and His Pupils); Linton, (Masters of Wood Engrav ing> (London 1899); and Thomson, D. C., (Life and Times of Thomas Bewick> (ib. 1882).