Headpiece (page 29) from The Fables of Aesop
Thomas Bewick
British, 1753–1828
1818
A small wood-engraved headpiece by Thomas Bewick that captures a moment from the Aesop fable “The Goat, the Kid, and the Wolf,” designed to give readers a vivid pictorial cue for the moral tale.
Set within an oval vignette, a wolf at a thatched cottage door is rendered with dense hatching and delicate linework—the stark black-and-white contrasts and textured details pull you into the decisive moment of the story.
Bewick’s economical, naturalistic wood engravings helped redefine book illustration in the early nineteenth century, making expressive, reproducible images central to popular storytelling and influencing generations of illustrators.
Medium
Wood engraving from an illustrated book with 323 wood engravings and one etching and engraving
Dimensions
composition: 2 5/16 × 3 3/16" (5.8 × 8.1 cm); page (irreg.): 8 1/4 × 5 5/16" (21 × 13.5 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
The Louis E. Stern Collection
Accession
680.1964.31
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
