Images of H. W. Longfellow in English book illustration of the mid-nineteenth century

The English school of book graphics flourished in the mid-nineteenth century, after Thomas Bewick improved the woodcut engraving, it became the most often used technique of book illustration. Several books by H. W. Longfellow were published in 1853-1854 in London; English artists M. Birket Forster, Jane E. Bentam, John Gilbert and Edward Henry Wehnert illustrated the volumes. These works are extremely diverse stylistically, covering various artistic currents of the nineteenth century, they reflect both post-sentimental and romantic features of the English tradition of the «picturesque» landscape can interlace with the influences of the Pre-Raphaelites and early art-nouveau.