 Lewis transformed numerous natural history paintings by Philip Reinagle into aquatints.His superlative skills as engraver led to frequent commissions from Royalty, and to his contribution to J. M. W. Turner's "Liber Studiorum", a collection of seventy-one etchings with mezzotint, greatly influencing landscape painting.Lewis's son, John Frederick Lewis (1805–1876), was a painter of Italian, Spanish, and Oriental themes.