Headpiece (page 71) from The Fables of Aesop
Thomas Bewick
British, 1753–1828
1818
A small wood engraving headpiece from Thomas Bewick’s 1818 edition of Aesop’s Fables, intended to illustrate “The Swallow and Other Birds” by concentrating story and natural detail into a compact vignette.
An oval vignette immediately draws you in: tiny, precise lines and dense hatching create a shaded woodland clearing where a farmer and birds are dissolved into richly textured foliage, producing remarkable depth and atmosphere at miniature scale.
Bewick’s refined wood-engraving technique helped transform book illustration—showing that relief cutting could convey lifelike textures and narrative clarity for widely circulated books and shaping nineteenth‑century natural history and literary imagery.
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
680.1964.66
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
