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]

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▪ art

 a printmaking technique in which a print is made from a design incised on the transverse section, or end, of a hardwood block. The technique was developed in England in the last half of the 18th century, and its first master was the printmaker Thomas Bewick (Bewick, Thomas), whose illustrations for such natural history books as A History of British Birds (1797 and 1804) were the first extended use of the technique. After Bewick's death, however, wood engraving served merely as a method to reproduce other works of art. The English poet and artist William Blake (Blake, William) (1757–1827) engraved his own designs on wood, but his work is an isolated example of original work done in the technique in his day.

      In 19th-century France and Germany, it became the most general means of illustrating books, magazines, and even newspapers. Gustave Doré (Doré, Gustave) in France and Adolf Menzel (Menzel, Adolf von) in Germany produced enormous quantities of drawings for illustration that were engraved by artisans. Although in the late 19th century photoengraving began to replace wood engraving for reproduction, the other technique survived and was used to great advantage by such artists as M.C. Escher (Escher, M.C.), Leonard Baskin (Baskin, Leonard), Fritz Eichenberg, and Barry Moser.

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