Chiloé Wigeon

About Charles Frederick Tunnicliffe

Charles Frederick Tunnicliffe was a British engraver, illustrator, and painter, born in Langley, near Macclesfield, Cheshire. After growing up on a farm he studied at Macclesfield School of Art, 1915–21, and the Royal College of Art, London, 1921–5. From 1925 to 1929 he taught part-time at Woolwich Polytechnic and during the the Second World War he was assistant art master at Manchester Grammar School, aside from these two roles he was a freelance artist. After the war he settled at Malltreath in Anglesey. Tunnicliffe specialized in natural history subjects, particularly birds, and was best known as a book illustrator. He made his name with his wood engravings for Henry Williamson’s Tarka the Otter (1932), and he illustrated almost a hundred other books.