Nature's Engraver: A Life of Thomas Bewick

by Jenny Uglow

A beautifully illustrated biography of Thomas Bewick (1753-1828), the man whose art helped shape the way we view the natural world

At the end of the eighteenth century, Britain, and much of the Western world, fell in love with nature. Thomas Bewick's History of British Birds marked the moment, the first "field guide" for ordinary people, illustrated with woodcuts of astonishing accuracy and beauty. But his work was far more than a mere guide, for in the vivid vignettes scattered through the book, Bewick captured the vanishing world of rural English life.

In this superb biography, Jenny Uglow tells the story of the farmer's son from Tyneside who influenced book illustration for a century to come. It is a story of violent change, radical politics, lost ways of life, and the beauty of the wild -- a journey to the beginning of our lasting obsession with the natural world.

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction, Art, Natural History, British Literature, Nature

480 pages, Hardcover

First published June 12, 2007

About the author

Jennifer Sheila Uglow OBE (née Crowther, born 1947) is a British biographer, critic and publisher. The editorial director of Chatto & Windus, she has written critically acclaimed biographies of Elizabeth Gaskell, William Hogarth, Thomas Bewick and the Lunar Society, among others, and has also compiled a women's biographical dictionary.

Reviews

[John Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a joy. It is enjoyable on so many levels; not that Bewick’s life was all joy, there was plenty of sadness along the way.

A brilliantly apt title. TB was literally the child of Nature. From the time he could walk and hold a pencil he was constantly drawing what he saw around him. He had little interest in anything else. A nightmare in the schoolroom until one inspired schoolmaster found that the best way to deal with him was to encourage him to do what he had an aptitude for – drawing. He was the local parson, Revd Gregson, to whom we owe a debt of immense gratitude. He and Tom remained friends for the rest of their lives and TB and the junior Gregsons were close friends. TB learned this lesson well from Gregson and practised it throughout his life, the encouragement of talent in childhood and youth. We see this in his relationships with his many apprentices throughout his life. Many of them were an extension of his family (NB they included family members too: his brother, son and more than one nephew were apprenticed to him). He was able to fire up the interest of children for books - his books - the release of which they eagerly anticipated. He may well then have introduced lots of children to the world of books, through his engravings; children who otherwise might not have gone near a book. Charlotte Bronte referred to his importance to the Bronte nursery and paid warm tribute to him on his death. Young Jane Eyre was fond of looking at Bewick’s books in the orphanage.

Bewick was apprenticed in Newcastle-upon-Tyne at a time when this busy, prospering town was the second financial capital to London. Reading about life there in Bewick’s time was fascinating. Bewick would remain a country boy, a Geordie and northerner who never lost his accent or matter of factness.

Nature was his religion; he was in awe of Her and respected Her thoroughly. He hated cruelty to animals and was against many of the blood sports of his day. If around today he would probably have been a vegetarian. Given that the farmer, land owner and aristocrat, formed no small part of his customer base, all hunters and shooters almost without exception, this says much about the level of respect in which Bewick was held by them. Sometimes their enthusiastic desire to help him was not entirely welcome to Bewick . Lots of dead creatures coming through the office letter box for him to illustrate and then dispose of via the taxidermist or the dinner table provided him with extra challenges. Sadly many were in such a deplorable state by the time they reached him that stuffing and eating were options were no longer available to him.

Whilst Bewick was a traditionalist this did not mean he supported the status quo politically. He championed the cause of the common man, was a member of various progressive societies in Newcastle and was outraged by the government’s oppressive measures against protesting working men and gave money to them. He was outraged by the treatment of Queen Caroline (of Brunswick) by the King and the establishment and measures taken against her, including her barring from her husband’s Coronation and hence her own crowning.

Bewick did much to help popularise the growth of interest in Nature and all things natural, nurturing this alongside the likes of Wordsworth, Constable and many others, including, a generation later, John Clare.

There is something worth quoting on virtually every page of this book but I will confine myself to the words of John James Audobon, ornithologist and writer responsible for the vast work ‘Birds of America’. He became friends with Bewick towards the end of the latter’s life:
“My opinion of this remarkable man is, that he was purely a son of nature, to whom alone he owed nearly all that characterised him as an artist and a man. Warm in his affections, of deep feeling, and possessed of a vigorous imagination, with correct and penetrating observation, he needed little extraneous aid to make him what he became, the first engraver on wood that England has produced. Look at his tail pieces reader, and say if you ever saw so much life represented before”. He would be an inspiration to many coming after him, including Eric Ravilious.

The book is illustrated to perfection. It is one to savour and read again and again. I have a friend who claims to be a direct descendant of Bewick. I am truly envious!

[Lyn Elliott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jenny Uglow's biography of the great engraver Thomas Bewick is the most recent of my book club reads. As we use the group collections of a local library, our choices have to be adjusted to which books are available when, and this month it was Nature's Engraver.

This was a treat for those 0f us who enjoy good non-fiction, not such a treat for those who strongly prefer fiction.

Jenny Uglow's work is always well-researched and she has an easy grasp of the period covering Bewick's life (1753-1828), one of great socio-economic and political change across continents.
Here we can see her immediate characters and the North East district of England in the context of wider contemporary events and ideas in a way that brings the place and time to life, enriching the biography of Bewick, who was born in the countryside west of Newcastle and lived his professional life in Newcastle, maintaining an extensive network of family, friends and colleagues that stretched across much of the North East.

She introduces us to the ideas and influences of the Enlightenment, and the emergence of Radical politics through Bewick's interest in them. A passionate walker and observer of nature, he put his precise observation skills and knowledge into his works, the best known of which is A History of British Birds. His work is exquisite, often humourous, in its detail, and part of the joy of Uglow's book is the many small, often tiny, Bewick engravings that it includes.

There's not much technical detail about his work, or of there is it is buried under the mass of detail about other things. Fortunately we have two books of our own on his work as an engraver and illustrator that I will go back to.

Grounded in the Enlightenment spirit of scientific inquiry, his work also flowed into the Romantic movement, with its delight in Nature and natural beauty, though his subjects were more homespun than Sublime. His deep love of country life comes thoroughly strongly in his work, where everything has a little bit of the country in it - people going about their daily lives, the scenery, trees, woods and farmlands, birds and animals.

It is slightly ironical that, although he showed life as it was, the cruelties and hardships along with the beauty, his work now fuels nostalgia for a vanished rural life.

Bewick the man comes across as generous, a committed family man and a good friend as well as a great artist.

Nearly all of us found it loo long, and bogged down in more detail than we could manage and gave up on parts, or most, of it. Perhaps if you were familiar with that part of England you might stick with it more.

A couple of good reviews online:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/200...
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/17/bo...

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thomas Bewick perfected a method of engraving with the harder end-grain of wood blocks rather than using standard techniques. As a result, he was able to produce smaller, more detailed, finely crafted prints. Bewick had a special affinity for natural history, particularly for birds. I selected this book because I was curious to learn more about Bewick's life and techniques due to the influence his engravings had on the development of natural history. What I discovered upon reading the text was that Jenny Unglow writes history in a flowing, charming style that as delightful to read. She has included 50 or so of Bewick's engravings, almost all reproduced in the original size. This latter fact is important, because most reproductions expand the engravings, which takes away much of their charm and allure. I found myself resorting to the use a small magnifying lens to appreciate some of the detail in the woodcuts, due to the the clues Uglow provides for their interpretation. This is a beautifully written book about a long-overlooked but very important figure in the history of natural history.

[GraceAnne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, lucid writing and uncluttered research. It seems to me only British writers manage that combination of erudition, grace, and scholarship that she does. Bewick strides across these pages a living personage and a great artist: his town, his countryside, his family, his politics all rendered vividly.

[Sammi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feel as if im slightly biased to this book as I'm from/live in the area described in this book, so everything feels really familiar and I can picture everything/understand where things are and how they look irl.
This book is still really well written, but I feel at times it becomes bogged down with a lot of maybe irrelevant or just too much detail and so many names. However, still a great an interesting read. Really covers everything you may need to know and in a really easily understood style. An informative read regardless if you know who thomas bewick is or not, and really good for understanding a bit of history that not a lot of people are aware of but DEFINITELY will have seen.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely book.
Definitely not for everyone, but I thoroughly enjoyed the research and summary of Bewick's life. I love the Bewick's Wren and was always curious who Bewick was. He was a brilliant, talented, incredibly productive artist who produced woodcuts for children's books and other uses that are shared in Jenny Uglow's book. I wish there were more on these pages, but now know I can find them elsewhere.
The description of daily life and the challenges of the trade of producing books - from the art to the production - was staggering. The talent, effort and commitment to the art and training others was engaging. And, he loved nature.
Then, of course, the birds. He came after Audubon, but not by much, and part of the book talks about Audubon trying to find a publisher. The woodcuts transferred so much easier to paper and yet can still get so much detail. Bewick's Stunning work was sought after by many while he lived and it is so obvious why.

I guess maybe I should start a goodreads group on bird artists - the books are well worth reading.

[QOH · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a charming biography of the engraver responsible for the Birds of Britain. (Remember Jane Eyre clutching Bewick's Birds? The Bronte sisters sketched from the book. Wordsworth was another fan.) He was a gentle (if temperamental) working man/naturalist who single-handedly revived the art of wood engraving.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_B...

I'll admit my attention flagged toward the end, where the natural progression of the chapters -- from chronology to topic -- required jumping around. I'd be reading and then confused: wait, who just died? Didn't his son get buried with him twenty pages ago?

But it's a small thing. Really a delightful book, all the way around.

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been reading this lovely book since Christmas, dipping in and enjoying the biography and the exquisite illustrations. It left me wanting to know more about Thomas Bewick and his work. It taught me that the Bewick swan is named after him and that the Northumbrian Pipes are a 'delicate instrument.'
One thing I wished Uglow had made more of was the technical aspect of Bewick's work...I realise this is not a 'how to' manual but I was intrigued by the dellicacy and detail of his work but it will prompt me to look for that in other sources.

[Neale · Rating 5 out of 5]

A minor historical work, perhaps, but one of my very favourites. It's a sheer delight both to read and to look at - Bewick's vignettes are incomparable. The biography makes a very 'ordinary' and uneventful life, in its local and historical setting, fascinating. And I love the way that the vignettes are always at the forefront on the text. This is the best kind of popular historical writing.

[Martha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a lovely book to look at because of the faithfully reproduced Bewick wood engravings. Uglow does a fine job of portraying an artist whose life events were not extraordinary but who saw and loved the extraordinary in ordinary things. Bewick had a long full life peopled by friends and family who loved him. It was nice, for a change, to read about an artist without all the usual anguish.

[Susan Beecher · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing. So incredibly well-written and so interesting. It is a biography of Thomas Bewick who was an engraver in England in the 1700s.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The last vignette he engraved . . . shows a coffin, followed by a small procession, being carried from the house on the hill down to the river to be rowed across of Ovingham. It is winter and the leafless branches bend in the wind as the boat waits on the water, ready to carry its cargo to the shades. The rough, strong strokes of the woodcut reveal the stiffness of Bewich elderly hands, but they conjure the moment for us still, across the currents of time."
Conjuring a life and works "across the currents of time" is what Uglow does admirably. The book is also richly illustrated with Bewick's engravings. The images were very small (Uglow explains why), but it was fun to see the details bloom under a magnifying glass.
4.5

[Keith Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many good things to say about this book and about Bewick. An apprenticed engraver who perfected wood block prints. A self-taught naturalist essential to the growth of taxonomy and probably to biology as a science. A kind man with a broad influence in his community. One of the observers who shaped "romantic" visions of the British landscape. Contemporary of Clare and Wordsworth and probably important to them in the making of their poems and the shaping of their ideas.

This book is printed on a heavier than usual paper (which contributes to its cost) because of the generous selection of Bewick's prints, done in actual size. They are precisely copied! I even looked at a few of the birds and the tail (tale)-pieces with a magnifying glass. They are beautifully done.

Uglow writes a precise and detailed prose. One thing I particularly liked about her method -- she dropped a lot of names about Bewick's neighbors and contemporary craftspeople (something that would normally bother me), making them an essential part of the whole process of Bewick's education, art, and legacy.

But the best thing, of course, is the chance to spend time with those exquisite miniatures of birds and rural life in England circa 1800!

[Peter Ellwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely book, worth reading on many levels. First, it provides an absorbing account of the life and times of a man few of us (well, I mean me really) will have heard of, second, it is another fine piece of writing from Jenny Uglow, and thirdly, it brings to life a period in England’s history that deserves the attention.

I came to it via The Lunar Men, another masterpiece by Jenny Uglow dealing with broadly the same period. I’d never really heard of Thomas Bewick, but the verve of her Lunar Men book had attracted me. And I wasn’t in any way disappointed. Her account of his life is sometimes just that, a tale of Thomas Bewick woven into the history of the times, the end of the eighteenth century and the rise of British ‘genius’; and sometimes it feels as if the scales tip the other way and she is in fact offering us a lively history of eighteenth century England, using Bewick and his family as the unifying thread.

In a way it scarcely matters: both elements are interesting and dealt with in a chipper sort of way. I preferred the ‘Bewick’ parts, where the text tends to wiggle and wriggle with life, as she describes his steady and unassuming rise, and his relations with his family. It’s no exaggeration to say that I was occasionally reminded of Dickens novels in these sections, such was the frolicsome way she presents it. Her prose is calm and never intrusive, but she conveys her point with gentle humour: a perfect recipe for a book of this kind.

I said ‘genius’ earlier. For me, this book tends to embody my own quiet patriotism. It’s not a question of shouting that England was somehow better than other countries and anyway, who cares where England stood in any beauty parade of civilised values. But the image Jenny Uglow conjures up, of a nation where a self-professed provincial who much preferred Newcastle to London could, in the eighteenth century seek fulfilment and a decent living in reproducing animals and birds on some of the greatest wood engravings ever made: tells its own tale. This was a civilised nation.

Her writing goes well beyond simple chronicling of a man’s history. The edition I read contained a large selection of his prints, and her prose really came alive through being able to look at the very prints she was talking about. More than that, her understanding and appreciation of the finer artistic aspects of his work is a real bonus. She describes the way he cut the wood in order to achieve this or that effect, she brings out the unique technical contributions he made to the development of the wood cutter’s art. Great stuff.

Not only that, she brings out Bewick’s accomplishments as a naturalist to brilliant effect – to say nothing of her own. For example:

“A modern book describes the grasshopper warbler for example, as ‘anonymous streaky grey-brown’. Bewick’s woodcut shows how rich this dullness is, how the dark streak passes from the bill to the eye and a dusky tone shines in the middle of the upper feathers, how the wing feathers are edged with pale brown and the yellowish white of the breast is speckled with deeper touches”.

This isn’t just the prose of a biographer, it’s the prose of a biographer who has really got inside her subject matter.

Despite all, I preferred the Lunar Men by a whisker, as it had a spot more coherence and focus on the lives of her several main subjects. By comparison, Thomas Bewick vanished from the pages of this book for what occasionally felt like quite long periods. The Lunar Men gets my Oscar therefore. All the same, anyone with an interest in what life tasted like around the end of the eighteenth century in England will love this book too.

[Harry Rutherford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jenny Uglow wrote the excellent The Lunar Men, about the Lunar Society that included Josiah Wedgwood, Erasmus Darwin, Joseph Priestley and Matthew Boulton. Nature's Engraver is a biography of the wood engraver Thomas Bewick who, born in 1753, was just about contemporary with those men. He worked in Newcastle at a time when it was just starting to turn from a small provincial town into a major industrial city, but his subject matter is overwhelmingly rural. His masterpiece was his History of British Birds, which, quite apart from its artistic merits, was a landmark in the development of British ornithology.

The sensitivity with which he manages to reproduce feathering in an awkward medium like woodcut is remarkable. But the incredibly fine detail is even more apparent in the little decorative vignettes he produced which were used to fill gaps in the text of books. Engraved into the cross section of pieces of box wood, they are rarely more than 3″ across, but they are staggeringly finely worked. Nature's Engraver has these vignettes distributed throughout.

The book is almost worth reading for the pictures, but Uglow also does a great job of evoking the period: the life of a provincial craftsman; the growth of interest in natural history that coincides, not perhaps by chance, with the coming of industry; radical politics and the response to the American and French Revolutions.

[Tedd · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had trouble finding this biography interesting. Whenever a topic I felt was important came up, it was discussed for two to three paragraphs; this was followed by an entire chapter on mundane details of Thomas Bewick's life. I do admit, it was nice to hear of daily life in late 18th c. Newcastle. Bewick's walking tours were also great. But when the actual style and craft inherent in the woodcuts Bewick is famous for creating was breached, it was a cursory mention. As if that aspect of the book was an afterthought. A disappointment for me.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a thorough and extremely interesting biography of a man who had a profound influence as both an artist and a naturalist. Not only is the text wonderfully clear and detailed, but the book is lavishly illustrated with Bewick's own woodcuts. The art alone is well worth grabbing a copy. Uglow understands both the man and his time, enabling her to present his life in the context that made it so remarkable. This is an excellent read for anyone interested in the art of woodcutting, as well as the history of northern England.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked it so much I had to buy a copy for myself. Thomas Bewick's little woodcut prints of birds, animals, and country scenes turn up in all sorts of places; unless you recognize his work you may not notice them. I have loved them for many years, and I was so glad to discover through this biography the man who engraved them 200 years ago.

[Kim Stallwood · Rating 1 out of 5]

My first book by Jenny Uglow, who I found to be a disappointing author, given that she's a celebrated editor and writer. Bewick's life and art are fascinating; however, I found this biography dull and confusing.

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Story of life in 18th century north of England and the artist who captured so much of it in his engravings. The writing is as wonderful as the illustrations. Highly recommended.

[Mew · Rating 3 out of 5]

A hugely fascinating subject but quite dense and felt a bit at times as though I was reading an in depth textbook.

[Steve M · Rating 4 out of 5]

As usual Jenny Uglow complements a comprehensive biography with a convincing recreation of the period setting the subject not only in time but in place.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uglow turns out another beautifully written biography, and in doing so,
illuminates both the man, Thomas Bewick, and the age in which he lived.

[Adam Stevenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jenny Uglow knows how to write a biography. Whether it’s a group one like The Lunar Men or focusing on one person like Hogarth, she knows how to gather, select and marshal data, presenting it with the readability of a novel and the precision expected of a work of non-fiction. As Nature’s Engraver is the life of a man who illustrated many books, this one is full of examples of his illustrations and images which put his achievements front and centre.

If there is one problem with the book, it’s that although Thomas Bewick was a man of great artistry and achievement, with an interestingly passionate temper, his life story doesn’t make the most gripping one. Unlike Hogarth, who also trained as an engraver, he didn’t have to claw from the background of a bankrupt family in debtor’s prison, not did he have Hogarth’s desire to prove himself. Thomas Bewick was from a rural middle-class family who apprenticed into an urban middle-class trade and was completely happy to be the best at what he did. Even Bewick’s big projects, like his books on birds, were expressions of his love of nature and revelled in his love of his craft done well. While severely hit by the death of his parents and later, his brother (as anyone would be) his path was a fairly smooth one.

If anything, his story reminded me of the kind of story told in the eighteenth-century designed to encourage apprentices to work hard. His was a wild youth, he bunked off school, doodled on the church pews and even sailed friends down river on a chunk of ice. This thoughtless youth was then apprenticed, where he knuckled down and became a success with a loving family, lots of friends and oodles of respect.

This is not to say he was a boring person exactly, but he was a person of passion who channelled those passion into useful ventures. A lover of animals, he still has participated in bloodsport as a youth and was only prepared to speak out against bloodsports enjoyed by the poor and not those that paid him to engrave their silver plate. I found it darkly amusing that his book celebrating British birds, launching many a keen naturalist over the centuries, was the result of a lot of dead birds. He was a man of simple pleasures, enjoying a gruelling walk, the monotony of fishing and musicality of whistling - which he felt one of the truly neglected musical traditions.

If anything, his loucher brother, John seemed more my type of person. He went to London where he grubbed away at children’s book illustrations before catching TB and going back up to Newcastle to die. He seemed jollier, looser and more prone to laughter. Even Jenny Uglow described his relationship with his wife to be loving ‘in his grave way’.

But the art is wonderful and the story behind it extremely well told and the book was a relief after the doom and gloom I’ve been reading recently.

[Michael Reilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deeply fascinating and entertaining from beginning to end, Nature’s Engraver exhibits Jenny Uglow’s admirable ability to quickly capture the imagination with her comprehensive biographies of interesting and appealing characters.

Detailed in these pages is Thomas Bewick’s full life, family, friends and business associates, plus much more, including descriptions of the period he lived in (social, political, economic and general enlightenment). This depth of information allows the reader to better understand Bewick’s relationships and decisions in context with his surroundings, and provides needed insight regarding his personal connection to the land and its diverse community of people and creatures.

My only complaint about this edition from Faber and Faber is the poor placement of some engraved images within the text. Sadly, too many do not appear between paragraphs (where they always should), resulting in ugly widows and orphans that simply shouldn’t appear in a book printed by a reputable publisher. It’s otherwise an attractive paperback with a good quantity of illustrations to show off Bewick’s fine art.

[Gordon Tyrrall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thomas Bewick is central, but this is a long book and far more than a straight biography. It's more of a social history of the turbulent times in England between the 1750s and 1820s and how Bewick fared through all this. I felt at times there was just too much unnecessary detail - an apprentice is taken on and we get to hear about what this apprentice's father thought about it, that his mother had died, that he later went on to found a printing company in London etc etc. Bewick's character emerges in fits and starts - it's only in the latter part of the book,when he is an old man, that I felt we really were in his presence,so to speak. Illustrations are essential in a book like this, and there are lots of them.

[Allegra Goodman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I savored this account of a fascinating artist and his work making woodcuts. Uglow is particularly good at describing Bewick's materials, apprenticeship, and process. His life is inspiring, and his work is gorgeous. The inclusion of many tiny woodcuts enhances the text and demonstrates the fine scale and exquisite craftsmanship of a master.

[Paul Cohen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice and fluent biography of the wood engraver Thomas Bewick. Also a nice insight into how book publishing worked in England and how life in Newcastle and the northeast of England was during Bewick's life. Many names of people and places and no cast of characters or really good maps was a drawback.

[Brian Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating read about a pre-industrial Newcastle and one of the early artists who revived a craft, woodblock engraving, whilst founding what became national pastime - capturing the likeness and magic of birds and animals in books!

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very detailed biography of Thomas Bewick, a wood engraver in the late 18th century. Wonderfully illustrated with his art.