Ikon Ikon Thomas Bewick: Tale-pieces

This catalogue accompanied Tale-pieces, the 2009 exhibition devoted to the extraordinary British artist-engraver and naturalist Thomas Bewick (1753 - 1828).

Bewick referred to his work as ‘tale-pieces’. Intended as illustrations of “some truth or point of some moral” they provide an invaluable insight into social history while also demonstrating the artist’s imagination and wit. Bewick’s images frequently reveal human frailties; one depicts a drunkard seeing two moons in the night sky; another shows a horse stopping on the bank of a river to avoid falling into the water, while his rider is oblivious.

Cut into the end-grain of blocks of box-wood, an exceptionally close-grained hardwood, Bewick’s tale-pieces are necessarily small in size, making us even more aware of the extraordinary skill involved in their production.