Miniature Worlds: Little Landscapes from Thomas Bewick to Beatrix Potter

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Miniature Worlds: Little Landscapes from Thomas Bewick to Beatrix Potter explores the intricate beauty of small-scale landscapes across three centuries of British art. The exhibition has a particular focus on vignette format illustrations and the changing relationship between text, illustration, and publishing. 

Highlights of the exhibition include seven highly detailed watercolours by JMW Turner, whose 250th birthday is being celebrated this year, a dramatic and diminutive drawing by John Martin, and nine intricate watercolours by Beatrix Potter. The exhibition includes over 130 objects, 90 of which are loans from other UK collections. 

The exhibition opens with works by Newcastle artist and wood engraver Thomas Bewick (1753-1828), who reinvented both the wood engraving technique and the small borderless ‘vignette’ illustration. Moving through the exhibition, a section dedicated to ‘Poetic Landscapes’ explores small scale works made during the Romantic Era, which saw artists emphasise emotion, imagination, and engagement with the natural world. The exhibition then explores the world of Victorian and Edwardian children’s books, which were often produced in small, child-friendly formats. Highlights include Three of John Tenniel’s iconic illustrations for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and original works by Beatrix Potter for The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Tale of Flopsy Bunnies, and The Tale of Mrs Tittlemouse. The exhibition closes with a look at 20th and 21st century works that have referenced and developed histories of the small-scale landscape in new and different ways.

The exhibition features paintings and prints by artists including JMW Turner, Beatrix Potter, Thomas Bewick, William Blake, Agnes Miller Parker, Eric Ravilious, Joanna Whittle, and more. 

Loans from Tate, the V&A, the British Museum, the Ashmolean Museum, National Galleries of Scotland, Newcastle University, Newcastle City Libraries, the Natural History Society of Northumbria, and the artists Paul Coldwell and Joanna Whittle complement the strengths of North East Museums' collections.