Birmingham School

The Birmingham School of engravers grew out of the early nineteenth-century drawing academies of Joseph Barber and Samuel Lines in Birmingham, and by the 1850s and 1860s its members dominated the art of line engraving in Britain. Trained in the city's metalworking culture, engravers such as William Radclyffe, James Tibbets Willmore, Robert Brandard and James Baylis Allen translated the paintings of J. M. W. Turner and other artists into steel and copper plates, greatly expanding the audience for contemporary art through illustrated books and magazines. The school's achievement was first recognized as a distinct body at the Exhibition of Engravings by Birmingham Men, held at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists in 1877.

Defining characteristics

• Crisp line engraving in steel and copper, built from fine parallel and cross-hatched lines
• Faithful tonal translation of oil paintings - especially Turner's - into black-and-white
• Large, luminous landscape plates: coasts, rivers, alpine passes and picturesque ruins
• Prolific book and magazine illustration that widened the audience for contemporary art

Key figures

• William Radclyffe (1783-1855) — Birmingham engraver and teacher who trained the school's leading figures
• James Tibbets Willmore (1800-1863) — Line engraver celebrated for his plates after Turner (The Golden Bough)
• Robert Brandard (1805-1862) — Landscape engraver of many Turner plates for The Turner Gallery
• James Baylis Allen (1803-1876) — Engraver of Turner's views for major illustrated publications

Example works

• The Golden Bough (after J. M. W. Turner) — James Tibbets Willmore (1856)
• Whalers: the 'Erebus' (after J. M. W. Turner) — Robert Brandard (1859)

Sources

• Birmingham School - Wikipedia encyclopedia

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