

SCaz?,«:il:.>^ 



%Sf 



Thirdly, he looked at life and nauire with a fresh 

 eye, without preconceptions. While his lack of larscr 

 vi.sion held him down as an artist, it contriljtitcd to 

 his feeling for natural textin-es and story-telling de- 

 tail. His approach to iUustralion. therefore, was the 

 spontaneous expression of an observant but unimagi- 

 native nature, coated with a bitter-sweet sentiment. 

 It was this (juality, so homely and common and yet 

 so charged with integrity, that deli\ered the shock 

 of recognition to a rnass audience. 



Lastly, and |u-rh<ips most importantly in the long 

 run, he \vas fortunate enough to live at a time when 

 a necessary prerequisite for the physical appearance 

 of his work, wove paper, was coming into use. With- 

 out it he would soon have had to simplify his line 

 system, returning to older and less detailed methods, 

 or his work would have n-mainecl unprintable. 



Figure 15. — Tailpiece by Tuom.as Bewick, from 

 History nf British birds, vol. 2, 1804. (.\ctual size.) 



PAPER 



: WIIV BEWICK SUCCEEDED 



It was the new paper thai allowed him 10 extract 

 unprecedented subtleties from the wood block, that 

 made his cuts print clearly and evenly, and that 

 encouraged the expansion of the wood engraxing 

 process. These factors, taken together, make up 

 the phenomenon of Thomas Bewick. 



^^^'^"^p^ • --^ iF -i^ 



-Ci^**, 





201 



U S. COVCNNHCNT PRINTINC OmCfiltlt 



