Tailpiece (page 318) from The Fables of Aesop
Thomas Bewick
British, 1753–1828
1818
A small wood engraving tailpiece by Thomas Bewick that closes a fable with a tiny narrative vignette—a lone figure leaning against rocky cliffs by the sea—meant to punctuate the text and echo its moral.
Set low on the page, the miniature black-and-white scene catches the eye with sharply incised lines and rich contrasts, the contemplative figure and layered rock forms framing a distant ship on the horizon in an immediately readable, poetic composition.
Bewick’s economical, expressive wood engravings helped transform book illustration by integrating finely detailed, reproducible images into narrative texts and set a standard for pictorial tailpieces that influenced nineteenth-century illustration.
Medium
Wood engraving from an illustrated book with 323 wood engravings and one etching and engraving
Dimensions
composition (irreg.): 1 11/16 × 2 5/8" (4.3 × 6.6 cm); page (irreg.): 8 1/4 × 5 5/16" (21 × 13.5 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
The Louis E. Stern Collection
Accession
680.1964.273
Palette
Exhibitions
