2 5 



THOMAS BEWICK. 



observations in the " Bewick Collector," but the drawings do so only in the 

 slightest way. This oversight becomes the more extraordinary when we see 

 the exquisite colour and careful manipulation of the Birds, with the wondrous 

 beauty of their plumage, the absolutely correct yet free drawing of other 

 details, and the breadth of the landscape vignettes. And our wonder at 

 the neglect blends into enthusiasm when we recollect at what an early date 

 these drawings were done. " Turner, when a young man," Mr. Hamerton 

 tells us, "did little more than repeat what had been done before by other 

 topographical draughtsmen, applying a traditional method to new subjects." 

 But here we find Bewick at a contemporary time (1791 to 1804) executing 

 drawings in water-colours that are perfect marvels of freshness and beauty, 

 and breadth and purity of tone ; drawings of simple truths from nature 

 made without straining after effect ; pictures complete in every sense, 

 taken from the feathered flocks or from the ordinary landscape ; effects and 

 studies each one a perfect gem in itself. This, be it remembered, not only 

 in the careful outline of the subject, but also in the colour. In comparing 

 them with modern work, they, from their age, appear weak ; but in many 

 instances this is no disadvantage, as it only lends additional delicacy to 

 drawings whose chief merits lie in the tenderness of their execution.* 



The greater number of the drawings in the collection in the British 

 Museum are of the Birds, the Quadrupeds being scarcely represented. The 

 reason of this appears to be that, in many cases of his early designs, Bewick 

 never had a sketch on paper at all, but drew them at once on the wood. Or it 

 may be that he did not think them of sufficient value to be kept, and either 

 destroyed them or gave them away to friends. Mr. J. W. Ford, of Enfield, 

 exhibited nine pencil and nine water-colour drawings by Bewick at the 



* In the " Treatise on Wood Engraving " Chatto asserts that many of the vignettes in the Birds, especially 

 those in the second volume, were neither designed nor engraved by Bewick ; but it is difficult to believe that the 

 drawings are not all by the same artist, as their manipulation is so nearly identical. The whole matter is gone into 

 in detail in the Treatise, to which the reader is referred, but it should be borne in mind that none of the 

 draughtsmen or engravers there mentioned were able to produce similar subjects of equal merit when they had not 

 Bewick's mind to inspire them. 



