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William Lewin (1747–1795) was an 
Lewin grew up in 
Lewin also produced a volume on butterflies, "The papilios of Great Britain, systematically arranged, accurately engraved, and painted from nature, with the natural history of each species, from a close application to the subject, and observations made in different countries of this kingdom; as well as from breeding numbers from the egg, or caterpillar, during the last thirty years", in 1795.
Lewin was buried at
English
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naturalist and illustrator.
Lewin grew up in Stepney
Stepney is a district in the East End of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The district is no longer officially defined, and is usually used to refer to a relatively small area. However, for much of its history the place name appli ...
, the son of a rate mariner. In 1776 he was earning a living as a pattern drawer, and by 1783 was describing himself as a painter. He specialised in natural history subjects.
In 1789 he began to issue his ''The Birds of Great Britain, with Their Eggs, Accurately Figured'', which he had been working on for the previous twenty years. It included 323 watercolour sketches of each of the 271 of birds and 52 plates of eggs, all which he hand-painted himself for the 60 copy first edition, a total of 19,380 individual paintings. Assisted by his three sons, he immediately began work on a second edition which was issued in parts from 1793 to 1801. The Second Edition, of 150 copies, was produced using copper plates onto which Lewin directly scribed the images which were not copies of the First Edition work, but entirely new and very much more detailed. Lewin died suddenly in 1795 having completed only the first 103 copper-plates himself. His sons (Thomas, Thomas William and John William) completed the remaining plates (104-336) after Lewin's death.
In 1791 his friend John Latham sponsored Lewin's membership of the Linnean Society
The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...
.
Lewin also produced a volume on butterflies, "The papilios of Great Britain, systematically arranged, accurately engraved, and painted from nature, with the natural history of each species, from a close application to the subject, and observations made in different countries of this kingdom; as well as from breeding numbers from the egg, or caterpillar, during the last thirty years", in 1795.
Lewin was buried at Edmonton
Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...
on 10 December 1795.
The First Edition of ''Birds of Great Britain and their Eggs'' almost immediately suffered from being broken-up for the individual watercolors, most of which have, as a consequence, been lost or destroyed. The Second Edition has also suffered in this way and complete copies are now also extremely rare with less than 30 known complete examples remaining.
See also
*John Lewin
John William Lewin (1770 – 27 August 1819) was an English-born artist active in Australia from 1800. The first professional artist of the colony of New South Wales, he illustrated the earliest volumes of Australian natural history. Many of his ...
References
*Christine E. Jackson – ''Bird Etchings. The Illustrators and their Books 1655–1855'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Lewin, William Fellows of the Linnean Society of London 1747 births 1795 deaths British ornithologists British bird artists