A treatise on wood engravings : historical and practical . ame, entirely overlooksthe merits of those by whom he was assisted. Charlton Nesbit andLuke Clennell rendered him more assistance, though not in the cutsof birds, than such as that afforded by a turners apprentice whenhe rounds off the heavy mass of wood ; and Robert Johnson, whodesigned many of the best of the tail-pieces, drew the human figuremore correctly than Bewick himself, and in landscape-drawing was atleast his equal. These observations are not intended in the least todetract from Bewicks just and deservedly great reputation,
A treatise on wood engravings : historical and practical . ame, entirely overlooksthe merits of those by whom he was assisted. Charlton Nesbit andLuke Clennell rendered him more assistance, though not in the cutsof birds, than such as that afforded by a turners apprentice whenhe rounds off the heavy mass of wood ; and Robert Johnson, whodesigned many of the best of the tail-pieces, drew the human figuremore correctly than Bewick himself, and in landscape-drawing was atleast his equal. These observations are not intended in the least todetract from Bewicks just and deservedly great reputation, but tocorrect the erroneous opinions which have been promulgated on thissubject by persons who knew nothing of the very considerable assist-ance which he received from his pupils in the drawing and engravingof the tail-pieces in his history of British Birds. Though three of the best specimens of Bewicks talents as a designerand engraver on wood—the Bittern, the Wood-cock, and the CommonDuck*—are to be found in the second volume, containing the water-. 1?^-^=::^?:^^^ birds, yet the land-birds in the first volume, from his being morefamiliar with their habits, and in consequence of their allowing morescope for the display of Bewicks excellence in the representation of moonlight scene at sea, page 120, vol. ii. [edition 1816]; the river scene at page 126; the seabreaking among the rocks at page 168, or 177, or 200, or 216 ; or the ripphng of the wateras it leaves the feet of the old fisherman, at page 95, did not satisfy him. In scarcely oneof the cuts engraved by Bewick himself is water in a state of motion well represented. Heknew his own deficiency in this respect; though Mr. Atkinson, not being able to distinguishthe cuts engraved by Bewick himself from those engraved by his pupils, cannot perceive it. * The cut here given is engraved by Bewick at a somewhat earlier date, for a oncepopular work entitled the History of Three Hundred Animals, since incorporated in
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectwoodengraving, bookye
