"I have always been fascinated by
Thomas Bewick and his work, and by people who like him have an in-depth knowledge of, and a passion for, nature," says Marcus.
. An inspiring selection of
Thomas Bewick's work is on show at Colwyn Bay Library, Woodland Road West, in an exhibition called An Anecdotal Eye: The Work Of
Thomas Bewick.
Thomas Bewick was born on a farm near Newcastle in 1753, a pre-industrial world that today enchants us because it seems so impossibly remote.
Though not as large as better-known Bewick collections--for example the Pease collection in Newcastle City Library--it is hardly surprising that the books acquired from him by the
Thomas Bewick Birthplace Trust were extremely choice specimens.
His books on Henry Fielding,
Thomas Bewick, Sir Richard Steele, Oliver Goldsmith, Horace Walpole, William Hogarth, Samuel Richardson, and Fanny Burney reveal careful research into, and sympathy with, 18th-century life.
FOR artist Marcus Coates, it was a case of taking flight from frenetic London to the calm of Cherryburn in Northumberland, the birthplace of naturalist and engraver
Thomas Bewick.
These will include works on natural history, including a medieval manuscript; architectural plans of the Cathedral and an edition of Northumberland-born engraver
Thomas Bewick's History of British Birds from 1797-1804.
Printing blocks carved by master engraver
Thomas Bewick are to be pressed into service to raise the profile of his Northumberland birthplace.
Following exhibitions devoted to the late 19th century German artist Max Klinger and master of the Japanese woodcut, Hiroshige, in the last few years, it has now turned its attention to the late 18th century Northumbrian wood engraver,
Thomas Bewick (1753- 1828).
An interesting companion to last year's superb survey of the work of Japanese artist Hiroshige, Tale-pieces (open now until May 25) surveys the work of another leading engraver:
Thomas Bewick.
There is an extensive, and ever expanding literature on the life and career of
Thomas Bewick (1753-1828), the universally acknowledged founder of the revival of wood engraving for book illustration in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
LETTERS and bills which reveal details of the daily life of the great Tyneside engraver, artist and naturalist
Thomas Bewick have been greeted as an exciting find by experts.