PREFACE. 



It has long been an acknowledged want in artistic biography that no compre- 

 hensive volume on the Life and Works of Thomas Bewick, the recognised 

 father of the Art of Engraving on Wood in England, has hitherto been 

 published. At various times and in different ways — as memoirs in journals, 

 as notices in newspapers, and as biographical accounts forming prefaces to 

 lists of his works — the outline of the story of Thomas Bewick's career has 

 appeared ; but, except in one instance, these have not aimed at giving in 

 detail a narrative of the interesting episodes in the artist-engraver's long, 

 fruitful, and well-spent life. 



This one exception is " A Memoir of Thomas Bewick, written by himself," 

 published upwards of thirty years after his death. It was edited by Jane 

 Bewick, the engraver's eldest daughter, " a very superior woman, animated, 

 intelligent, and gentle." In this the record of the early life of the artist is 

 in every respect acceptable,* but the narrative of the later period does not 

 give a satisfactory account of the engraver's achievements ; and it enters 

 into the discussion of questions on which the writer had not expended more 

 study than is given by an ordinarily thoughtful man. 



The purpose of the present work is to show the engraver more than the 

 politician ; the pictorial designer in place of the religious advocate ; the 

 energetic artist and graphic moralist rather than the letterpress teacher. 



In carrying out this end, the following pages, in many instances, take a 

 bibliographic form. This is not mentioned to be apologized for, as it is 

 necessary in describing Bewick's works ; but that the ordinary reader may 

 not be disappointed in finding so much space devoted to the purely 

 technical portion of the scheme. To the admirer of Bewick's prints, and 

 to the collector of his works, the particulars of books (which have never 



* Mr. Ruskin recommended it to his Oxford students as cne of the first Art books they ought to obtain. 



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