Fable
n.d.
Medium
Woodcut on paper
Dimensions
Image: 5.3 × 7.8 cm (2 1/8 × 3 1/8 in.); Sheet: 7.9 × 10.3 cm (3 1/8 × 4 1/16 in.)
Classification
wood engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
20137
Art Historical Context
Thomas Bewick's *Fable*, an exquisite wood engraving from the Art Institute of Chicago's Prints and Drawings collection, captures the artist's mastery of a medium that bridged fine art and book illustration in late 18th- and early 19th-century Britain. Bewick (1753–1828), a pioneering English engraver from Newcastle upon Tyne, revolutionized wood engraving by using the end-grain of boxwood, allowing for unprecedented detail and tonal subtlety akin to copperplate etching. This undated print, modestly sized at just 5.3 × 7.8 cm, exemplifies his signature vignettes—small, narrative scenes often d...
About the Artist
Thomas Bewick
Thomas Bewick (c. 11 August 1753–8 November 1828) was born at Cherryburn in Mickley, Northumberland, the eldest of eight children to tenant farmers John and Jane Bewick. From a young age, he displayed a natural talent for drawing animals and birds observed in the local countryside, without formal art lessons. At age 14 in 1767, he was apprenticed to metal engraver Ralph Beilby in Newcastle upon Ty...