Name/Title
Willow Wren, now Willow Warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus)Entry/Object ID
2017.03.04Description
Print
Wood engraving on paper, an illustrated page from Thomas Bewick's (1753-1828) ca. 1797 "A History of British Birds Vol. I: Containing the History and Description of Land Birds", Bewick and Longman (England).
This illustration depicts a bird sometimes called the "Willow Wren" before the English name was standardized to Willow Warbler in 1843. The Willow Warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus) is a very common and widespread leaf Warbler. It breeds throughout northern and temperate Europe and the Palearctic, from Ireland east to eastern Siberia. It is strongly migratory, with almost all of the population wintering in Sub-Saharan Africa. Some of the migrate some 12,000 km from eastern Siberia to southern Africa, one of the longest migrations of any for a bird of its size.Artwork Details
Medium
Wood engraving on paperContext
This illustration is cut from a page of Thomas Bewick's famous "A History of British Birds Vol. I: Containing the History and Description of Land Birds", Bewick and Longman (England), published in 1797. It is page 165 in the 1885 Memorial Edition (see Web Links below).Made/Created
Artist Information
Artist
Thomas Bewick (1753-1828)Role
Artist and EngraverArtist
Bewick and Longman (England)Role
PublisherDate made
circa 1797Time Period
18th CenturyNotes
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Born in Northumberland, Thomas Bewick was an English wood-engraver and natural history author who at a very early age showed a talent for drawing. He had no lessons in art, and at the age of 14 he was apprenticed to Ralph Beilby (1744–1817), an engraver in Newcastle. In 1776 Bewick became a partner with Beilby and the joint business prospered. The partners published their “A General History of Quadrupeds” in 1790, intended for children but reaching an adult readership, and its success encouraged them to consider more serious work of natural history on the history of British birds.
“A History of British Birds”, Bewick's great achievement and with which his name is inseparably associated, was published in two volumes: “History and Description of Land Birds” in 1797 and “History and Description of Water Birds” in 1804, with a supplement in 1821. The Birds is specifically British, but is the forerunner of all modern field guides for non-specialists. Bewick's art is considered the pinnacle of his medium, now called wood engraving. This is due both to his skill and to the method used, which unlike the technique of his predecessors, was carved against the grain, in hard box wood, using fine tools normally favoured by metal engravers. Bewick's fame, already nationwide across Britain for his Birds, grew during the nineteenth century and beyond.
