Woodblock for The Green Woodpecker, from A History of British Birds
Thomas Bewick
c. 1797
Medium
Wood engraving block
Dimensions
Block: 6.3 × 6 × 2.4 cm (2 1/2 × 2 3/8 × 1 in.)
Classification
wood engraving block
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
48746
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...