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 Bewick until 1883, dying in the old house, now 19 West Street, Gateshead, where her father, mother, brother, and sisters had died before her. In 1882 Miss Isabella Bewick anticipated a bequest, agreed upon with her sister Jane, and gave to the British Museum a choice collection of water-colours and woodcuts by her father, his brother John, and his son, some of which had been exhibited in London in November and December 1880. Since her death her executors have also presented several valuable portraits, drawings, prints, and other Bewick relics to the Newcastle Natural History Society's Museum.



BEWICK, JOHN (1760–1795), wood-engraver, younger brother of, was born at Cherryburn in March 1760. In 1777 he was apprenticed to Bewick and Beilby. It has been asserted that, during the time of his apprenticeship, he assisted his brother in the illustrations to 'Gay's Fables,' 1779, and the 'Select Fables,' 1784. In Bewick's 'Memoir,' however, where some acknowledgment to this effect might reasonably have been expected, there is not a word upon the subject. As a matter of fact, it is difficult to understand what material aid the younger brother could have rendered to the elder in the 'Gay's Fables,' seeing that he was only in the second year of his apprenticeship when it was first published. To the 'Select Fables' of 1784 the argument of inexperience does not equally apply; but it may be noted that John Bewick's work, for many years subsequent to 1784, will not either in draughtsmanship or engraving sustain a comparison with the illustrations in that volume. Moreover, though this is of minor importance, for at least two years previous to its appearance John Bewick had been resident in London.

According to the 'Memoir of Thomas Bewick,' John continued in his apprenticeship for about five years, when his brother gave him his liberty, and he left Newcastle for London. Here he found immediate and active, though not lucrative employment, chiefly on blocks for children's books. Hugo's Catalogue gives us the titles of some of these: The 'Children's Miscellany,' by Day of Sandford and Merton fame; the 'Honours of the Table, or Rules for Behaviour during Meals;' the 'History of a School-Boy;' and the 'New Robinson Crusoe.' The date of the last named is 1788, and many of its cuts are signed. But the first work of real importance attributed to Bewick is an edition of 'Gay's Fables,' printed in the same year for J. Buckland and others, in which, with minor variations and some exceptions, the earlier designs of Thomas Bewick are followed. This book affords an opportunity of comparing the brothers on similar grounds, and the superiority of the elder is incontestable. Next to Gay comes a book which has usually been placed first, the 'Emblems of Mortality,' published by T. Hodgson in 1789. This is a copy of the famous 'Icones,' or 'Imagines Mortis,' of Holbein, from the Latin edition issued at Lyons in 1647 by Jean Frellon 'Soubz l'escu de Cologne.' Hugo associates Thomas Bewick with John in this work; and we have certainly seen an edition which has both names on the title-page. The early writers, however, assign it to John Bewick alone; and this view is confirmed by the following extract from a letter of Thomas to John, printed in the 'Transactions of the Natural History Society of Northumberland,' &c., for 1877. 'I am much pleased, says Thomas Bewick,' with the Cuts for Death's Dance. &hellip; I am surprised that you would undertake to do them for 6s. each. You have been spending your time and grinding out your eyes to little purpose indeed. I would not have done them for a farthing less than double that sum. &hellip; I am glad to find you have begun on your own bottom, and I would earnestly recommend you to establish your character by taking uncommon pains with what you do.' The quotation seems to indicate that John Bewick had set up on his own account in November 1787, the date of the letter to which the above is an answer. It gives some idea besides of the prices paid for wood-engraving both in London and Newcastle, which, as may be seen, were on anything but a liberal scale.

Even in these days of Amand-Durand facsimiles the 'Emblems of Mortality' is a praiseworthy memento of those marvellous woodcuts which, as we are now taught to believe, the obscure Hans Lutzelburger engraved after Holbein's designs. In details, John Bewick's copies vary considerably from the originals; and in one instance, that of the 'Creation,' where the earlier illustrator has represented the first person of the Trinity in a papal tiara, his imitator, by editorial desire, has substituted a design of his own. But the spirit of the old cuts is almost always preserved; and considering the hasty and ill-paid character of the work, its general fidelity to Holbein is remarkable. After 'Death's Dance' came a little group of books, chiefly intended for the education of children. Of these it is impossible to give any detailed or exhaustive account, nor is it needful, as they have all a strong family resemblance. The first two, 'Proverbs Exemplified,' 1790, and