Headpiece (page 215) from The Fables of Aesop
Thomas Bewick
British, 1753–1828
1818
A small wood engraving headpiece by Thomas Bewick that illustrates Aesop’s fable “The Fox and the Stork,” using finely carved end-grain wood to tell a compact moral story.
The oval vignette immediately draws the eye with its dense, delicate hatchwork: a long‑billed stork and a sly fox awkwardly confronting a narrow‑necked jar, their gestures and the crisply textured foliage around them rendered with minute, alive detail.
Bewick’s mastery of wood engraving helped redefine book illustration in the early 19th century, bringing naturalistic detail and expressive character to mass‑produced literature and shaping the visual language of illustrated books that followed.
Medium
Wood engraving from an illustrated book with 323 wood engravings and one etching and engraving
Dimensions
composition: 2 5/16 × 3 1/8" (5.8 × 8 cm); page (irreg.): 8 1/4 × 5 5/16" (21 × 13.5 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
The Louis E. Stern Collection
Accession
680.1964.194
Palette
Exhibitions
