Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Volume 1 only. Pages in excellent condition. Images are beautiful bright and vivid. No notes or highlighting. Some light dustmarking but not affecting pages which are bright. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> The mastery of his wood engraving brought Thomas Bewick an early and a lasting fame. Ever since his death in 1828 he has been the subject of a continuing stream of books and articles and some account of him now appears in virtually every work relating to the history of the relief print. But despite this the background of his working life as a copper- plate printer and trade engraver on metals has never been thoroughly understood. Likewise the world is still very largely ignorant of Bewick as a draughtsman and colourist and of the fact that like many another artist-craftsman he always had two or three apprentices under instruction to whom as part of their training he delegated much of his work. Although Bewick’s drawings were the subject of admiration for the few people lucky enough to see them it seems that some of the earlier ones were destroyed and there was no substantial exhibition of them in his lifetime. Fortunately as his children grew up they began to treasure the relics of their father’s draughtsmanship and only the most pressing visitors were able to secure the relatively few subjects now outside the three principal collections in Newcastle and London. In 1880 not long before their deaths his daughters Jane and Isabella allowed a large number to be given their first formal showing at the Fine Art Society in London. The exhibition was organised by David Croal Thomson who was at the time writing a life of Bewick. (MP)