THOMAS BEWICK. 



25 



1880 exhibition, and Mr. Edward Ford, of Old Park, at the same time lent 

 a frame of sketches, containing seven water-colour and three pencil drawings, 

 among them the Hungry Ewe and the Neglectful Nurse, both from the 1791 

 Quadrupeds. Hugo had ten drawings in his collection, one being by 

 John Bewick, and this small number in the most extensive Bewick collector's 

 possession proves the great difficulty there is in obtaining an example 

 of Bewick's powers as a water-colour painter. Prof. Corfield possesses an 

 exquisite sketch of the Turkey, the tail-pieces at pages 42 and 285 of the 

 first volume of the Birds, drawn in pencil on vellum, a rough sketch of foliage, 

 and a number of heads of minute size in a small note-book formerly in the 

 collection of E. J. Jupp, to whom Miss Jane Bewick presented them in 1869. 

 These are in pencil, and are mostly portraits, one being marked Cicero and 

 another Frederick the Great. They bear a strong resemblance to several of 

 the drawings in the British Museum. 



Together with the drawings mentioned as having been exhibited in 1880, 

 the graving tools referred to at page 26, and the eye-glass employed by Bewick 

 while at work, were shown. The eye-glass was only an acquisition of Bewick's 

 later years. Atkinson says, " In his younger days he could finish one of his Bird 

 blocks, if not accompanied with much foliage, in a day, or sometimes in a 

 few hours. At a later period, though still possessed of excellent eyesight, 



he could not work so unremittingly At one period of his life he 



injured by over-exertion one of the nerves of the eye, and it was almost 

 feared at the time that he would never fully recover his strength ; happily, 

 however, he did." 



In the exhibition there were also a number of Bewick's finest engravings : 

 the Chillingham Bull, vellum proof, from Miss Bewick's collection, and fine 

 editions of the Birds, Quadrupeds, Select Fables, the Chase, and others. 

 Many newspapers * made detailed comments on the collection, and from these 



* Academy, Nov. 20; Athenceum, Nov. 6; Art Journal, January, 1881 ; Builder, Nov. 20; Field, Nov. 20; 

 Illustrated News, Nov. 13; Madras Mail, Dec. 16; Manchester Guardian, Nov. 10; Newcastle Daily Journal, 

 Nov. 9; Northern Echo, Nov. 5; St. James's Gazette, Nov. 11 ; The Times, Nov. 12th, 1880. 



K K 2 



