Wood engraving

Wood engraving

Wood engraving is a relief printing technique, where the end grain of wood is used as a medium for engraving, thus differing from the older technique of woodcut, where the softer side grain is used.

Origin and technique

The technique of wood engraving developed at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, with the works of Thomas Bewick. Bewick generally made his engraving in harder woods than normally used, and would engrave the end of a block instead of the side. Finding a knife not suitable for working against the grain in harder woods, Bewick used the engraving tool the burin, which has a V-shaped cutting tip. Engraving on wood in this manner produced highly detailed images, usually quite unlike those produced by engraving on copper plates. Furthermore, unlike copper-plate engravings that quickly deteriorated, thousands of copies could be printed from engraved wood blocks. Since wood engraving is a relief process while metal engraving is an intaglio technique, wood engravings could be used on conventional print presses, which were themselves making rapid mechanical improvements during the first quarter of the 19th century. As a result of Bewick's innovation and improvements in the printing press, illustrations of art, nature, technical processes, famous people, foreign lands and many other subjects became more widely available.

Commercial use in the 19th century

Bewick's innovations were developed and expanded by a large group of professional wood engravers. Magazines with large circulations ("The Illustrated London News", and "Harper's Weekly") were illustrated with large wood engravings that were the product of a collaboration between draftsmen and wood engravers. Gustave Doré's famous works were likewise a collaborative product of Doré and a group of talented wood engravers. In 19th century France wood engravings became besides lithography the medium of choice for caricaturist such as Honoré Daumier, who published his wood engravings in daily satirical papers such as the Charivari.

Wood engraving as a reproductive (rather than artistic) technique has been displaced by advances in printing technology. Wood engraving is now used to create bookplates, fine art limited edition prints, and a few book illustrations and commercial artwork.

Notable wood engravers

In rough chronological order

*Thomas Bewick
*Honoré Daumier
*Adolph Menzel
*Gustave Doré
*Thomas Nast
*Eduard Magnus Jakobson
*Arthur Comfort
*Eric Gill
*Gwen Raverat
*Hans Alexander Mueller
*Paul Nash (artist)
*John Nash (artist)
*Paul Landacre
*David Jones (poet)
*Agnes Miller Parker
*John Buckland Wright
*Clare Leighton
*Reynolds Stone
*Alexander Weygers
*Fritz Eichenberg
*Blair Hughes-Stanton
*Timothy Cole
*Eric Ravilious
*Lynd Ward
*E. Mervyn Taylor (New Zealand)
*Bernard Brussel-Smith
*Garrick Palmer
*Vija Celmins
*Barry Moser
*John Steins
*Gaylord Schanilec
*Andy English
*Barbara Howard, RCA (Canada)
*Rosemary Feit Covey

ee also

* "Flammarion woodcut" which is a wood "engraving"

Donato Rico, (Don Rico)

Organizations

* [http://www.woodengravers.net/ Wood Engravers Network]
* [http://www.woodengravers.co.uk Society of Wood Engravers]

Further reading

*Simon Brett, "An engravers globe" ISBN 1-901648-12-5
*Simon Brett, "Wood engraving: how to do it." ISBN 1-901648-23-0; 1-901648-24-9 (hbk.)


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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Wood engraving — Wood Wood, n. [OE. wode, wude, AS. wudu, wiodu; akin to OHG. witu, Icel. vi?r, Dan. & Sw. ved wood, and probably to Ir. & Gael. fiodh, W. gwydd trees, shrubs.] [1913 Webster] 1. A large and thick collection of trees; a forest or grove; frequently …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • wood engraving — wood engraver. 1. the art or process of engraving designs in relief with a burin on the end grain of wood, for printing. 2. a block of wood so engraved. 3. a print or impression from it. [1810 20] * * * ▪ art  a printmaking technique in which a… …   Universalium

  • wood engraving — n. 1. the art or process of engraving on wood 2. WOODCUT: a wood engraving is often distinguished from a woodcut in that the former uses a block of wood cut across the grain and the latter a block of wood cut along the grain wood engraver n …   English World dictionary

  • wood engraving — noun Date: 1816 1. a relief printing surface consisting of a wooden block with a usually pictorial design cut in the end grain 2. a print from a wood engraving …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • wood engraving — wood′ engrav ing n. 1) fia the art or process of engraving designs in relief with a burin on wood cut against the grain, for printing 2) fia a block of wood so engraved 3) fia a print or impression from it • Etymology: 1810–20 wood′ engrav er, n …   From formal English to slang

  • wood engraving — noun 1. a print made from a woodcut • Syn: ↑woodcut • Hypernyms: ↑engraving 2. engraving consisting of a block of wood with a design cut into it; used to make prints • Syn: ↑woodcut, ↑wood block …   Useful english dictionary

  • wood engraving — /ˈwʊd ɛnˌgreɪvɪŋ/ (say wood en.grayving) noun 1. the art or process of engraving designs in relief with a burin on the end grain of wood, for printing. 2. a block of wood so engraved. 3. a print or impression from it. –wood engraver, noun …  

  • wood engraving — noun 1》 a print made from a finely detailed design cut into the end grain of a block of wood. 2》 the technique of making such prints. Derivatives wood engraver noun …   English new terms dictionary

  • wood-engraving — n. 1. Xylography. 2. Wood cut, cut …   New dictionary of synonyms

  • Wood — Wood, n. [OE. wode, wude, AS. wudu, wiodu; akin to OHG. witu, Icel. vi?r, Dan. & Sw. ved wood, and probably to Ir. & Gael. fiodh, W. gwydd trees, shrubs.] [1913 Webster] 1. A large and thick collection of trees; a forest or grove; frequently used …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

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