Enfilade

William Beilby, River Landscape Seen through Trees, 1774
(Newcastle: Laing Art Gallery)

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Now on view in Newcastle, as noted by the Art History News blog:

Miniature Worlds: Little Landscapes from Thomas Bewick to Beatrix Potter

Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, 18 October 2025 — 28 February 2026

Curated by Lizzie Jacklin

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 focuses on vignette format illustrations and the changing relationship between text, illustration, and publishing. Highlights include seven highly detailed watercolors by J.M.W. 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 features over 130 objects, 90 of which are loans from other UK collections.

Thomas Bewick, Angler on a Riverbank, Tailpiece Illustration from A History of British Birds, volume 2, p. 50, wood engraving (Newcastle: 1804 / Ashmolean Museum).

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. 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 20th- and 21st-century works that reference and develop histories of the small-scale landscape in new ways.

Miniature Worlds: Little Landscapes features paintings and prints by artists including J.M.W. 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.

r e l a t e d  t a l k s

Wednesday, 19 November 2025, 1pm
Lizzie Jacklin | Watercolour Worlds: The Vignettes of J.M.W. Turner and Beatrix Potter

Wednesday, 28 January 2026, 1pm
Lizzie Jacklin | Curator Talk: Miniature Worlds

Wednesday, 4 February 2026, 1pm
Jenny Uglow | Bewick and Lear: Oddities of Daily Life