WILLI

William Blake

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William Blake

William Vaughan

Visionary, dreamer, poet and mystic, Blake

remains one of the most controversial figures
in the history of art. His taste for Gothic .

decoration and early poetry accords with his

antipathy to the rational: his inspiration
derived from the visions that he claimed to
see, which were predominantly religious in
character.
Born in 1757, he lived in London for most
of his life. Early on he learned the crafts of
printing and engraving. A marked distaste for
authoritarianism had channelled him away
from the official circles of the Royal Academy,
and he resolved to disseminate his work
himself. He wrote, illustrated and printed a
series of fine books, of which perhaps the most
famous are the Songs of Innocence and Songs of
Experience. In his paintings, watercolors and
engravings Blake returned again and again to
the themes of the Old Testament: one of his
most haunting images is of the mad king
Nebuchadnezzar, and he made a great series
of watercolors for The Book of job. He also
illustrated Dante's Divine Comedy in the last
few years before his death in 1827.
William Vaughan outlines the life of this
extraordinary man and shows how Blake's
visionary sensibility expressed itself in a
remarkable body of work. The singular
characteristics of his art are well illustrated by
the forty color plates.
William Vaughan

WILLIAM
BLAKE
With 46 color plates

PARK SOUTH BOOKS

An imprint of
Publishers Marketing Enterprises Inc.
386 Park Avenue South
New York, New York 10016
Published by PARK SOUTH BOOKS
An imprint of Publishers Marketing Enterprises Inc.
386 Park Avenue South
New York, New York 10016

First published in the U.K. by

Thames and Hudson Ltd. London

© John Calmann and Cooper Ltd, 1977

This book was designed and produced by
John Calmann and Cooper Ltd. London

Reprinted 1985

All rights reserved. No part of this publication

may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publishers.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 84-61597

ISBN 0-917923-01-4

Printed in Hong Kong by Mandarin Offset Ltd

 Introduction

f
It is a HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS since William Blake died, and vet he is still

a controversial figure. For this English poet and ;iriisi is so extreme in his
assertions, so Inspired and yel so naive in his art, thathe cuts across ;ill
conventional means of assessment. It is true that his emergence is less of a
mystery to us than it was to earlier generations. A wealth of scholarship in
recent decades has shown that his prophetic claims had many parallels in the
unsettled times in which he lived, rent as they were hy those political and
social crises epitomized hy the French Revolution of 1789. Furthermore the
heroic and primitive tendencies in his art can now be seen to be closely related
to the preoccupations of other, more conventional artists of the day. Yet the
synthesis he made from these is unique and there is no confusing his works
with those of any of his contemporaries. \
The most striking feature of Blake's art is its visionary character. He was a
'seer' in the literal sense of the word, for whom the realm of the spirit was
every bit as tangible as the material world. Nor did this power seem incidental
to his creative gifts; indeed, he felt that it was only through artistic intuition
that the deeper reality could be perceived - a reflection that led him to describe
Jesus Christ and all true spiritual leaders as 'artists'. His own talents were
wide : ranging. He was equally gifted as a poet and a painter, and is reputed to
have composed fine music as well. It is in fact hard to view his pictorial work
in isolation. It was continuously fired by the written word, by the Bible, Dante,
the great English poets and by his own writings. Despite this his pictures are
not 'literary' in the sense of being merely illustrative. He was too much a
master of both word and image to make one do the job of the other. The link
between his activities reached to a more fundamental level, to that rhythmic
intensity which can be found in all great poetry, painting and music. While
Blake sometimes showed shortcomings in such learnable pictorial skills as
anatomy and perspective, his art is sustained throughout by the vibrancy of
its line. It is this which gives vigour to such monumental works as

Nebuchadnezzar (plate 13) and which enlivens the lyricism of the gentlest
moments in the Songs of Innocence (plate 4).
In contrast to the wealth of his inner life, Blake's material existence was a
modest one. The son of a hosier, he was born in London on 28th November
1757. Throughout his seventy years of life he was poor and, with the
exception of three years in the country between 1800 and 1803, never moved
away from his native city. While his artistic intentions were not discouraged
by his family, they were turned to practical use. In 1 772 he was apprenticed to
the reproductive engraver James Basire, with whom he remained for the
customary seven years. This training was important for providing him with a
means which he was to fall back on throughout his career. As
of livelihood
well as this gave him that knowledge of engraving processes which was to
it

be put to such good use when he was evolving his own printing methods for
his illuminated books in the late 1780s.
Perhaps Basire's instruction also encouraged Blake's interest in linear
precision. For the engraver was a meticulous if somewhat pedestrian
craftsman who specialized in topographical and antiquarian work. However,
the taste for clear outline was also one that accorded with the mounting
severity of the contemporary classical revival. It was this style that Blake
emulated when he set out, at the end of his apprenticeship, to establish a
reputation as an artist in his own right.
As part of this ambition he enrolled at the Royal Academy Schools in 1779.
Although was not long, it did bring him into contact with a
his stay there
number of promising young artists. In particular he became friendly with
John Flaxman. the Neo-classical sculptor who was to become famous
throughout Europe fifteen years later for his outline drawings of scenes from
Homer and Dante. Between 1780 and 1785 Blake exhibited a number of
historical and religious designs at the Royal Academy, and those that survive
(plate 1 show an emphasis on contour and compositional clarity that has
)

affinities with the works of such notable Neo-classical artists of the day as
James Barry and Benjamin West.
In these early years Blake's imaginative powers were already attracting
interest in certain artistic and intellectual circles. Indeed some admirers,
including Flaxman. clubbed together to pay for the printing of a book of
Blake's writings, the Poetical Sketches in 1783. although the work was never
actually published. However, his professional prospects remained uncertain.
An engraving business that he set up in 1 784 was disbanded in the following
year. In 1785. too. the carefully worked up watercolours that he sent to the
Royal Academy (plate 1 were harshly criticized by the President. Sir Joshua
)

Reynolds. Blake was not to exhibit his work again for fourteen years and even
then, he did so infrequently.
Such setbacks, which were no doubt harder to bear now that he had a wife
to support he had married in 1 782 seem to have thrown Blake increasingly
( ).

upon his inner resources. With his growing independence of thought and
action there came that marked opposition to authoritarianism that was to
characterize his subsequent publications. He certainly sympathized with the
radical extremists of the time, and became acquainted in 1788 with such
social reformers as the republican Tom Paine - soon to be driven from
England for his support of the French Revolution - and the defender of
women's rights. Mary Wollstonecraft. At the same time he became more
extreme in his pictorial art. showing an appreciation of the dramatic
productions of the recently deceased John Hamilton Mortimer, and of the
bizarre expressionistic paintings of his older contemporary Henry Fuseli.
Blake's individualism culminated in his decision to address the public
directly, without the intermediary of either Academy or publisher, by
producing books which he wrote, designed, and printed himself. The result
was a remarkable series of illustrated texts which appeared over a span of
thirty odd years. These contained the body of Blake's thought and much of his
most potent imagery.
The method that Blake used to produce these represented something of a
technical breakthrough for it enabled text and illustration to be designed and
printed on a single plate. Characteristically he claimed that it had been
revealed to him in vision by the spirit of his favourite brother Robert, whose
death in 1787 had moved him so deeply. Basically the process involved
drawing and writing on a metal plate with an acid-resistant gum. The plate
was then placed in a bath of acid so that the uncovered areas were eaten
away, leaving the inscribed parts in relief. It was from these raised sections
that the impression was taken. Although difficult to carry out. the method
involved no elaborate machinery and could be practiced by Blake in his own
home. After printing, each page would be hand-coloured by himself or his
wife. Every copy of every book, therefore, was unique.
The first work in which this process was successfully used was the Songs of
Innocence (1789) {plate 4). A delightfully decorated collection of short lyrical
poems, it seems remarkably innocuous in content. It is true thai it placed
more emphasis on emotion than reason, but it did not attack the conventions
of the age In the way fi.it Blake's later works were to do. Very different is the
t

hook's sequel, the Songs oj Experience (1795) which are concerned with
human misery and corruption. Perhaps the change was precipitated by a
worsening in the artist's own position, hike many radicals he suffered from the
reactionary backlash in England thai followed on the revolutionary events in
France. In the autumn of 790 he moved away from the centre of London to
I

the relative isolation of Lambeth, where he was to remain until 18(X).

It was from Lambeth that the great 'prophetic' hooks of the 7 X)s were
1
c

issued. Their mood was preluded by the satirical Marriage <>l Heaven and Hell
(1790) [plate 6), in which he contested the views of one of his former mentors,
the Swedish divine Emanuel Swedenborg. Finding the conventional division
of good and evil that Swedenborg supported to be repressive, Blake
concentrated on those positive values that had been proscribed by being
thought wicked. Much of the book is given over to 'Proverbs of Hell', which
include such arresting libertarian pronouncements as 'The road of excess
leads to the palace of wisdom', 'Exuberance is beauty' and 'One Law for the
Lion and Ox is oppression'.
The 'prophetic' books themselves were larger both in scope and format.
Like one of the prophets of the Old Testament, Blake set out in these to expose
human errors and indicate the true path. He took his cue from the most
pressing problems of the day - rebellion in the New World [America, 1793),
revolution in the old [Europe, 1 794 [plates 8 and9), sexual repression and other
forms of slavery [Visions of the Daughters of Albion, 1793 (plate 7)). The final
book, Jerusalem (1804-20), reviews the whole history of man, showing the
misery caused by his limited spiritual vision, and predicting his salvation and
ultimate union with eternity. It is not hard to see why Blake should have felt
drawn to undertake such an ambitious programme - especially when Europe
was undergoing such turmoil. But it does seem strange at first that he should
have chosen to cast his prophecies in the form of mythological sagas peopled
with such obscurely named characters as the innocent Oothon or the harsh
deity Urizen.
Certainly he was not being esoteric, for although his books were bought by
no more than a handful of faithful friends and collectors of curios they were
clearly intended for a wide public. The reason seems to lie rather in his
appreciation of the nature of myth itself. Blake shared the growing fascination
of his age with the legends of the ancient world which he saw as creative and
imaginative accounts of the fundamentals of existence. While not true in a
prosaic sense, they contain insights into a reality that no rational process
could reach. Blake's own mythology is dramatic and inspired. The qualities it
embodies are not directly translatable, and any attempt to do so must reduce
it to aridity and lifelessness. His deeper meaning is not to be illuminated by

minute exegesis, but only by a corresponding leap in our own imaginations.

In these books the relief etching technique reached new heights of
perfection. At times the imagery flows around the words, at times it is quite
independent, sometimes even in subject matter. Blake was arrheir to the Neo-
Platonic notion that pictorial images were an essential^ means of
communicating the ideal. He believed that they provided insights equal, if not
superior, in value to those of words. He therefore took as much trouble to
emulate the qualities of the art of the ancient world, as he did to imitate its
myths and prophecies. He even assumed a biblical precedent for such work,
following a belief current at the time that the statues of Greece and the
hieroglyphs of Egypt were derived from a lost Hebrew art.
 The importance that Blake gave to archetypal imagery is borne out by the
series of twelve large prints that he produced between about 1794 and 1796.
As with his illuminated books, these involved the invention of a new process.
In this case impressions were taken from a painted-up board. Such
'monoprints' (each board, in fact, yielded a maximum of three prints) were
then touched up with pen and watercolour. Many of the forms in these plates
were taken from Blake's books and like the book illustrations, the
'monoprints', are critical in tone, describing the limitations of rationalism and
the slavery caused by organized religion and society (plates 11-15). However
the pictures also show a concern for succinct monumental forms of a more
severe kind than those used in the historical compositions of the 1780s.
Blake's admiration of the sublime grandeur of Michelangelo now had a more
positive effect on his art. Indeed, some of the figures in these prints, such as
Newton (plate 12), were directly copied from the work of the great Italian
master.
Although Blake was an isolated figure at this time, he was far from being
completely overlooked. His standing was still sufficiently high for him to
receive important commercial commissions, such as the decoration of the
popular poet Edward Young's Night Thoughts with 537 rich border
illustrations. Only part of this ambitious project was actually published (in
1796), but it did lead to a further private one of a similar nature; the
decoration of the equally fashionable poems of Thomas Gray for Flaxman's
wife. Although Blake had been in sympathy with such sentimental
'graveyard' poets in his youth, he now found them mediocre, and was often
critical of their powers in his surrounding However, he was also
illustrations.
able to enter into the spirit of the occasion, and often gave such designs a
light-hearted, lyrical tone that contrasts strongly with the grimmer mood of
his own themes.
After 1800 such lyricism took on a more positive value in his art. He now
emphasized the ecstatic side of his vision, the contemplation of the Divine. It
was an auspicious time for him, in which new benefactors emerged. Between
1800 and 1803 one of these, the gentleman poet William Hayley,
accommodated him in a cottage in the country, at Felpham, Sussex. More
important, however, was the minor civil servant Thomas Butts whom Blake
described as the 'angel to my visions'. Though not a wealthy man, Butts was
to be the artist's principal patron (at times, indeed, his only one) for the next
two decades.
The first commission that Butts gave Blake - 1799 - was for a series of
in
biblical scenes. These the artist executed in a form of tempera painting. He
preferred this archaic technique to the more usual one of oil, for he saw the
latter,with its capacity for rich tonalities, as the medium that favoured the
soft,sensual art of such 'materialists' as the Venetian painters or Rubens.
Tempera, which he confused with the fresco wall-painting of the early Italian
masters, seemed to him to avoid all facile effects and encourage instead the
clear designs and firm contours of his own inspired art. It was some years,
however, before he fully mastered this technique, and his early tempera
paintings now appear dim and murky.
Meanwhile his most effective paintings were executed in watercolour; a
technique that also favours linearity even if it does lack the density of tempera.
It was in watercolour that Blake executed a second series of biblical scenes for

Butts (plates 16-19). These pictures show that Blake was now looking at
mediaeval art with new attentiveness. Ever since he had been sent as an
apprentice to make drawings from the Royal Tombs in Westminster Abbey he
had had an admiration for gothic: and, indeed, his illuminated books have
their closest parallel in the manuscripts of the middle ages. Now, however, he
emulated the actual style ofgothic, the attenuated forms and ethereal effects.
It is significant thai he should ;it this time have turned his back on Greek art,

dismissing its measured forms ;is 'mathematical'. Gothic, by contrast, was a

'living form'.
At times there are direct copies of mediaeval figures in these watercolours.
There is also a general symmetrical tendency in their design which is
reminiscent of the hieratic form of early altarpieces and emphasizes Blake's
view of painting as a religious act. Perhaps the most striking feature of these
works, however, is their gentle radiance which gives these devotional works
such visionary quality. These characteristics were to be sustained in the
themes from Milton that Blake subsequently painted for Butts. Here, however,
the effects were supplemented by a richer range of colours (plates 2 5- 26).
Despite the general lack of interest in his productions, Blake still dreamed of
coming before the public and even of executing major monumental works like
his beloved Michelangelo and the religious artists before him. It was this hope
that spurred him, in 1809, to mount a one-man show in his brother's house off
Golden Square in Soho. The exhibition, which contained many designs the
artist would like to have executed on a monumental scale, was up for over a
year, but it was a complete failure. The only paper to review it. The Examiner,
dismissed the whole business as a 'farago of nonsense' and none of the works
were sold. Only one visitor viewed it sympathetically. This was the lawyer
Henry Crabb Robinson who had a close knowledge of the works of the
German Romantics, and who found interesting comparisons between their
outlook and that of Blake.
The years that followed Blake's exhibition were his most obscure. He
received only the most menial of commercial commissions, and had more
difficulty than ever in selling his original works. Even the enthusiasm of
Thomas Butts dwindled. Yet curiously none of this seems to have affected the
mood of his art. He continued steadfastly with his great apocalyptic work,
Jerusalem and with the production of Miltonic watercolours.
Around 1818 Blake's fortunes began to improve. Now over sixty, he was
taken up by a much younger generation who, under the influence of the
growing Romantic movement, took a sympathetic view of the artist who
opposed rationalism, was guided by visions and admired the primitive. The
most important of these was the painter John Linnell. A shrewd businessman,
Linnell provided Blake with rewarding employment; it was through his offices
that Blake was commissioned to provide wood-engravings for a school edition
of Virgil's Eclogues (The Pastorals of Virgil 1821). While the vigour of these
horrified the editor, Dr. Robert Thornton, they were received with great
enthusiasm by the artist's friends. The vividness of the rural scenes they
described was to be immensely influential on the landscapes of one of these,
the young Samuel Palmer who, for a time, worked with a group of associates
styled 'the Ancients' in the Kent village of Shoreham, depicting the local
scenery with Blakean fervour. Another project instigated by Linnell, the
engraving of Blake's Illustration of the Book of Job (1825), also contains much
pastoral imagery. One of the few works by Blake that was genuinely popular
during his lifetime, it eased the artist's poverty during his last two years of life.
Blake's last major undertaking, the production of watercolours and
engravings illustrating the Divine Comedy of Dante, was commissioned, like
the Job, by Linnell. Unfinished at the time of his death, it shows that he was at
the height of his powers right at the end of his life {plates 34-40). Pictures like
the Circle of the Lustful (plate 37) or The Simoniac Pope (plate 38) combine a
Michelangelesque vigour and Gothic sinuousness with magnificent,
flickering colour effects.These evoke so vividly a sense of the unearthly
regions of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise through which Dante passes in his
epic poem, that it might be supposed that Blake was closely following the
intentions of the author he was illustrating. Yet he had, in fact, severe
reservations about the mediaeval Italian's vision, finding it too legalistic. As
ever, Blake had his own point of view which he could not suppress in
deference to the opinions of others.
Blake died on 12th August 1827, a few months before his seventieth
birthday. His last years appear to have been tranquil, for although his worldly
success had been limited, he had the satisfaction of knowing that he had
remained true to his inner vision throughout the decades of privation and
opposition. And in the large oeuvre that he left behind him, it is this
irrepressible conviction that triumphs, making his challenging art so
vigorous and exciting.

1. Joseph Making Himself Known

to his Brethren
c.1784-5. Watercolour and ink. 151 x22lin (40-3 x 56-2cm)

One of the three large and carefully finished watercolours

of the biblical story of Joseph which Blake exhibited at the
Royal Academy in 1785. This one shows the moment
when Joseph (the gesticulating figure on the left) reveals
his true identity to his brothers and foregives them their
crime against him. Executed at a time when Blake still
hoped for conventional success as a painter of historical
and imaginative subjects, it shows the succinct outlines
and carefully controlled design favoured by contemporary
Neo-classical taste.

Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum

*J
l.Oberon, Titania and Puck with
Fairies Dancing
c. 1785-90. Watercolour. I8ix2&in (47-5 x62-5cm)

This is a lyrical rendering of the final scene of A

Midsummer Night's Dream. On the left are Oberon and
Titania. Now reconciled, they bless the state of marriage as
their attendant fairies dance. While close in style to the
Story of Joseph series (plate 1 the picture is looser in
)

handling and is possibly unfinished. Shakespearian

subjects were popular amongst artists and patrons in
England in the late eighteenth century. Around the time
Blake executed this design, his friend Henry Fuseli was
painting scenes from the same play
form part of the
to
'Shakespeare Gallery' being assembled by the wealthy
publisher Alderman Boydell.

London, Tate Gallery

3. The Penance of Jane Shore in
St. Paul's Church
c.1790. Watercolour and pen (varnished). 9i x lllin
(24-5x29- 5cm)

Jane Shore was the mistress of Edward IV. After his death
in 1483 she was condemned to do penance at St. Paul's
church by the succeeding monarch, Richard III. Her
beauty and bearing during her trials were reputed to have
aroused much sympathy which certainly seems to be the
sentiment expressed by the soldiers and onlookers in
Blake's watercolour. The subject's implied criticism of
conventional sexual morality accorded with the artist's

own views. Blake first treated the theme around 1778-80

when designing a series of scenes from British history;
however this version is normally dated around 1790 on
account of its more accomplished handling.

London, Tate Gallery

4. Songs of Innocence
Title Page; The Shepherd; The Divine Image; Infant Joy.
First published 1789. Relief etchings with watercolour.
Approximately 4k x2iin (11-3 x 7 -2cm)

This tiny volume was the first of a long line of books that
Blake published using a relief-etching method of his own
devising. This enabled him to achieve a close unity
between each poem and the surrounding design. Often the
effect is reminiscent of a mediaeval manuscript. The simple

lyrics and idyllic sentiments of this work have made it the

most popular of Blake's productions; it concentrates on
children and the gentler aspects of the natural world and
much of the imagery is pastoral. But it also has a more
profound side which comes to the fore in such poems as
The Divine Image which emphasizes the presence of the
Divine in humanity.

Washington, Library of Congress

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5 Songs of Experience
.

Frontispiece; The Sick Rose; The Tyger; A Poison Tree.

First published 1794. Relief etchings with watercolour. 27
pages. Approximately 4\ x2lin (ll- 3 x 7 -2cm)

Issued as a sequel to Songs of Innocence {plate 4), which was

republished with it, many of the poems in Songs of
Experience are direct antitheses to those in the earlier
work. They reflect the growing disillusion that Blake had
experienced in the intervening years. As the frontispiece
suggests the 'poet' shepherd now proceeds with new
determination and insight. He questions the fundamental
goodness of the world (The Sick Rose), exposes human
evil and
injustice (The Tyger), and admits to feelings of
Once more the illustrations extend
jealousy (Poison Tree).
the meaning of the poems - though with more striking
accomplishment. As might be expected, the colours used
tend to be more sombre than in the Songs of Innocence.

Washington, Library of Congress

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6. The Marriage of Heaven and
Hell
c. 17 90-3. Relief etching with watercolour. 6 x4iin
(15 x lOScrn)

A prose work conceived as a critique of Heaven and Hell,

one of the writings of the Swedish divine Emanuel
Swedenborg whose doctrines had greatly influenced Blake
in the late 1780s. In the book Blake suggests that the
conventional distinctions of good and evil, which
Swedenborg supported, were in fact a suppression of vital
energies beneath lifeless regulations. The exuberant
imagery of the title page bears out the message of the
book. It contrasts a barren earth with the flaming Hell
beneath. It is and 'evil' are
in the latter that 'good'
reunited as an angel and devil embrace in the lower
depths.

Washington, Library of Congress

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7. Visions of the Daughters of
Albion; The Argument
17 94-5. Relief etching with watercolour.
c. 61 x4iin
(17 x 12cm)

One of the earliest of Blake's illuminated 'prophetic' books,

in which an invented mythology is used to attack
contemporary mores. Here the target is sexual
conventions and the suffering they bring to the 'Daughters
of Albion', that is the women of England. The Argument
depicts the moment when Oothon, the heroine, innocently
indulges in sexual curiosity (she is shown plucking a
marigold in the vale of Leutha). Subsequently she is raped
and enslaved in a union that neither she nor her oppressor
desires. The simplicity of this design contrasts strongly
with the tortuous imagery to come.

Princeton, University Library

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8. Europe, a Prophecy; the
Ancient of Days
First published 1794. Relief etching with watercolour. c.1821.
12ix9iin(30-4x23-6cm)

Both America and its sequel, Europe, deal with the

upheavals of Blake's own time. In Europe the troubles are
traced back to the misunderstanding of the true message
of Christianity. Under the baleful influence of the harsh
law-giving deity Urizen. Europe develops a repressive and
materialistic society that eventually provokes the violent
reaction of the French Revolution. The magnificent
frontispiece shown here, one of Blake's most famous
designs, shows Urizen measuring out the material world.
Dividers, a traditional attribute of God as creator, were
frequently used by Blake as an image of soulless
construction as in Newton (plate 12).

Cambridge. Fitzwilliam Museum

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9. Europe, A Prophecy; Blighted
crops
First published 1794. Relief etching with watercolour. c.1821.
12k x 9\in (30-4 x 23-6cm)

Although not illustrating an event mentioned in the text

of Europe, the picture represents the continent's miseries in
allegorical form. Two sprites blast the earth's produce with
seeds of destruction. This plate, like the preceding one,
come from a particularly finely coloured version of Europe,
which was executed for John Linnell, the most important
of Blake's patrons in his last years.

Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum

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10. Glad Day or The Dance of
Albion
First engraved 1780, coloured 1794-6. Engraving with
watercolour. 10i x 7iin (27-3 x 19-5cm)

According to an inscription on a later version of this

engraving, the ecstatic figure is Albion (i.e. England) rising
from bondage; his pose is taken from a diagram
illustrating human proportions as conceived by the
Ancient Roman architect Vitruvius. The plate may
originally have been intended to form an optimistic
conclusion to the series of illustrations of scenes from
English history that Blake was planning between 1778 and
1780 {plate 3). Although this print is so heavily
overpainted that the engraved lines can not be seen, other
copies show the date 1780.

London, British Museum

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11. Elohim creating Adam
c.1795. Monoprint, with pen and watercolour. 17 x2lHn
(42-1 x53-6cm)

A most severe interpretation of the creation of man.

Elohim is the Hebrew name for God in his aspect of justice.
He is shown here as a terrifying, stone-like, figure virtually
dragging the protesting form of man from the world of the
spirit into the enslavement of mortality. This large design

isone of a group of twelve that were executed in about

1795 (also plates 22-25). They represent a high point in his
experimentation with colour printing. A maximum of
three impressions were taken direct from a piece of
millboard upon which the subject had been painted in
tempera. These were subsequently touched up with pen
and watercolour.

London, Tate Gallery

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12. Newton
1795. Monophnt, with pen and watercolour. 18s x23lin
(46 x 60cm)

The famous British scientist has been transposed here into

an allegorical image of materialism. Using a pair of
harsh diety Urizen in The Ancient of Days
dividers, like the
he imposes a rational order on the world. Like the
(plate 9),
other monoprints, this composition shows Blake's interest
at this time in creating succinct, monumental forms. In
this case the figure is based on Michelangelo's
representation of the prophet Abias in the Sistine Chapel.

London, Tate Gallery

13 . Nebuchadnezzar
1795. Monoprint, with pen and watercolour. 171 x 24l in
(44-6 x62cm)

An illustration to the Biblical account of the Babylonian

monarch who went insane after persecuting the Jews.
Blake has responded to the description in Daniel IV of how
the king became an animal, eating grass like oxen, his
as
hair growing 'like and his nails 'like bird's
eagle's feathers'
claws'. It has been suggested that this print may have
been a pendant to Newton (plate 13). Like it, it represents a
man devoid of spiritual vision. It also shows a full use of
the rich textures and flickering light effects that the
monoprint method could produce to create a doom-laden
atmosphere.

London, Tate Gallery

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14. Pity
c.1795. Monoprint, with pen and watercolour. 16i x21lin
(42-5 x S3-9cm)

An allegorical design apparently inspired by the lines in

Macbeth, Act One, Scene Seven, that describe pity as
'.
. . like a naked new-borne babe
striding the blast, or Heaven's Cherubim, horsed upon
the sightless carriers of the air.'

In Urizen (1794) Blake depicted Pity as a weak, divisive

force, and this attitude is borne out in this design in the
clear separation between the victim and the ethereal
onlookers. Although gentler than the other monoprints it

is, in fact, equally critical in tone.

London, Tate Gallery

15 . The Lazar House
1795. Monoprint, with pen and watercolour. 19i x24in
(48-5x61 cm)

The scene based on the description of a lazar house in

is

Milton's Paradise Lost, XI, 477-493. Diseased victims writhe

in agony, presided over by Death - who looks much like
Blake's harsh deity Urizen {plate 9). This is a particularly
fresh and vigorous monoprint impression which has
required very little working up with pen and water colour.

Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum

16. Bathsheba at the Bath
1799-1800. Tempera. 10\ x 24* in (26-3 x37-6cm)

One of the first series of illustrations to the Bible painted

for Thomas Butts, Blake's most important patron in the
first and second decades of the nineteenth century. The

scene is taken from 11 Samuel2 and concerns the

XI,
beautiful wife of Uriah the Hittite, who was desired by
King David after this monarch had seen her taking a bath.
The two children shown with her do not occur in the
Biblical text. This series is one of the earliest examples of
Blake's use of tempera. He preferred the archaic medium
to oil, since he felt it was more austere in its effects. Despite
this, it has been used here in a sensuous manner,

presumably because of the erotic nature of the subject.

London, Tate Gallery

17. Jacob's Ladder
1800-03. Watercolour. 14? xllhn (36-8 x28-9cm)

One of the finest of a series of watercolours illustrating

biblicalthemes which Blake painted for Thomas Butts. It
shows Jacob asleep at the bottom of the picture, dreaming
of the ladder reaching from earth to heaven with angels
ascending and descending, as described in Genesis XXV,
12. The striking spiral form of the 'ladder' and the
inclusion of humans amongst the ascending forms
emphasizes Blake's interpretation of this dream as a
metaphor for the soul's aspiration to be reunited with God.

London, The British Museum

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18. God Blessing the
Seventh Day
c.1805. Watercolour. 19 x 16hn (41-9 x 35-5cm)

This biblical illustration indicates most clearly Blake's

renewed interest in Gothic art. The image of God, encircled
by six angels, blessing the Seventh Day at the end of the
creation has been shown to be based upon a mediaeval
roof boss in York Minster. The ethereal light and
symmetrical arrangement are typical of this series, and
contrast strongly with the dark dramatic paintings of the
1790s.

U.K., Private Collection

rt M
19. The Great Red Dragon and the
Woman Clothed with the Sun
c.1806-9. Watercolour. 16k xl3hn (42 x 34- 3cm)

The illustrations to Revelations form an important group in

the series of biblical watercolours that Blake painted for
Thomas opening verses
Butts. This painting illustrates the
of Revelations XII, which describe a 'great red dragon'
waiting before 'the woman clothed with the sun' to
devour the child that she is about to give birth to.
According to tradition the dragon is worldly power and
the woman Israel, oppressed in her innocence by the
wicked.

New York, Brooklyn Museum

20. The Last Judgement
1808. Tempera. 29s x 15hn (47-5 x 38cm)

Blake depicted this theme many times. This version, the

most complex surviving, was painted for Lady Egremont.
Its programme is described in a letter from the artist to
Ozias Humphreys, the man who arranged the commission.
Blake did not have the orthodox Christian vision of the
Last Judgement as a cataclysmic event at the end of the
world, when the good will be separated from the evil and
sent respectively to everlasting bliss or eternal damnation.
He saw it rather as a state of mind which occurs whenever
an error is recognized - -
either individually or collectively
and decisively cast out.

Sussex, Petworth House

21. The Spiritual Form of Nelson
Guiding Leviathan
c.1809. Tempera on canvas. 30 x 24iin (76-2 x 62- 5cm)

This was exhibited with a pendant The SpiritualForm of

Pitt Guiding Behemoth in Blake's abortive one-man show in
1809. Treating two of the leading figures in England's
struggle with France, they were critical in mood as war
was, in Blake's eyes, a perversion of energy. Leviathan is

the great monster of the sea in the Bible and Behemoth

that of the land. In this picture the hero of Trafalgar is

shown as a youth holding apart the coils of Leviathan

in whose wreathings are infolded the nations of the earth'.

London, Tate Gallery

22. Adam Naming the Beasts
1810. Tempera on Canvas. 29i x 24kin (73 x 60cm)

One of a group of religious half-length pictures of Adam,

Eve, Christ and the Virgin and Child. They were painted
for his patron Thomas Butts, and may have formed part of
a wall decoration. They are all painted in tempera, and
their technical quality suggests that by 1810 he had begun
to master this archaicmedium. Like the other pictures in
this series the figure is frontal and hieratic, with strongly
emphasized hand gestures. Here Adam indicates the good
animals of creation with his right hand, while covering
the evil serpent with his left.

Glasgow, Pollock House

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23. The Canterbury Pilgrims
c.1809. Tempera. 18k x 53iin (46-4 xl36-5cm)

For Blake Chaucer was, with Shakespeare and Milton, one

of the three greatest English poets. He saw the mediaeval
writer's Canterbury Tales as including 'the characters
which compose all ages and nations'. In the frieze-like
procession of this large painting the pilgrims are posed as a
series of archetypes, ranked according to class. They are
seen setting out from the Tabarde Inn, Southwark. Behind
is which shows Blake's gift for
a fine atmospheric vista
landscape. An engraving work was published in
after the
1810. It was preceded by one of a similar theme and
design by Thomas Stothard which Blake considered to be a
plagiarism of his painting.

Glasgow, Pollock House

24. The Faerie Queen
1815. Watercolour (varnished). Detail.

This picture appears to be a pendant to Canterbury

Pilgrims, despite its later date and different medium. The
figures in it mirror the movement work,
in the earlier
although the gestures here are most ecstatic and the sky is
peopled with mythological characters. The latter fit in with
the allegorical nature of Spencer's poem and provide a
critique of it.

Sussex, Petworth House

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25. Adam and Eve Sleeping
1808. Watercolour. 29i x 1 Shin (51 -8 x 39- 3cm)

One of the twelve illustrations to Milton's Paradise Lost

painted for Thomas Butts. This picture shows the moment
described in Book IV, 799-803, when Adam and Eve are
peacefully asleep in the Garden of Eden before the Fall.
They are watched over by the angels Ithuriel and Zephan
who have just discovered Satan 'squat like a toad, close at
the ear of Eve' tempting her in a dream.

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts

26. Christ Placed on the Pinnacle
of the Temple
1816-18. Watercolour. 6f x5lin (26-6 x 13-3cm)

One of twelve designs to Milton's Paradise Regained. They

were possibly intended as a sequel to the Paradise Lost
illustrations, but unlike these were not bought by Thomas
Butts. Although equally elaborate, their draughtsmanship
is less precise and their mood less intense. This picture

shows Christ triumphantly revealing himself as the Son of

God after having endured Satan's final temptation.

Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum

 8A

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27. A Prophet in the Wilderness
c. 181 5-20. Ink and body colour. 6i x4iin (15-9 x 11 -9cm)

An unidentified subject which has been related to the

Paradise Regained series (plate 26). cannot have been
It

intended as part of this, however, as it differs in size and

medium. It has the softer handling of Blake's later years
and shows the feeling for landscape that came to the fore
at this time.

Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum

33C5
28. The Youthful Poet Sleeping on
a Bank
c.1816-18. Watercolour. 7x4iin (17-5 x 11cm)

The concluding illustration of a group of six for Milton's

light-hearted early poem L' Allegro.They are matched by
six for its counterpart, 11 Penseroso. The poet is shown, as
described by Milton, pleasantly slumbering by a 'haunted
stream' on a summer's eve. The extraordinary imagery
around him is based on the metaphors invoked in the
concluding stanzas of the poem. They are bound together
by a gentle lyrical design and soft, cheerful colouring that
captures the mood of Milton's work.

New York, Pierpont Morgan Library

29 .The Ghost oj a Flea
c.1819. Tempera and gold on panel. 8k x 6iin (21-4 x l6-2cm)

In October 1819 Blake made a number of drawings of

manifestations of historical and imaginary personages at
the instigation of John Varley, a watercolourist who liked
to dabble in the occult. On one of these occasions Blake
made three sketches of the Ghost of a Flea. Varley later
recorded the artist as having said that 'all fleas were
inhabited by the souls of such men
were by nature
as
bloodthirsty to excess'. This tempera painting, which was
also owned by Varley. is based on the drawings. It adds
much allegorical detail, such as the pincer and cup for
catching blood. The constellation behind indicates Gemini,
the zodiacal sign that belonged, in Blake's opinion, to the
bloodthirsty.

London, Tate Gallery

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30. Satan Going Forth from the
Presence of the Lord
c.1821. Ink and Colour washes. 5? x4hn (13-3 x ll-2cm)

One of the series of reduced drawings made from the

watercolour illustrations to the Book of Job (plate
artist's

31) which were made when he was commissioned to

engrave the series by John Linnell. In the final line
engravings each design had an additional margin which
contained verbal and pictorial commentaries on the
subject.

Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum

31. Book of Job; 'When the Morning
Stars Sang Together
c. 1805-10. Watercolour. 8 x 6in (19-5 x 15cm)

The Old Testament story of Job, the man who obeyed the
Lord but was still beset by misfortune, fascinated Blake
throughout his life. Around 1805-10 he made a series of
carefully worked-up watercolours on the theme which
were later to form the basis of a book of engravings (1825).
This is one of the finest of the design. It shows Job's
mystical awareness of the workings of the universe after
the Lord (shown here in the centre) had revealed himself.
This corresponds to the fourfold nature of man. The lowest
section represents the flesh, where Job and his companions
sit.The Sun God Apollo (middle left) represents the
intellect; opposite is the moon, who stands for feeling. The
choir of angels above symbolizes the spirit.

New York, Pierpont Morgan Library

I r 1
32. The Body of Abel Found by
Adam and Eve
C.1826. Tempera on panel. 12i x I7hn (32-5 x43-3cm)

This magnificent composition appears to be a later version

of a work included in Blake's exhibition of 1809. It shows
the high technical standard of the artist's last tempera
paintings and the powerful, highly emotive colours that he
favoured at that time. The blood red sun sets the mood of
the tragedy. The moment depicted is not one described in
the account of the murder in Genesis. It does, however,
have affinities with passages in Salomon Gessner's The
Death of Abel (1758), an epic poem that was highly popular
at the time and much illustrated by artists.

London, Tate Gallery

 •
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33. The Wise and Foolish Virgins
c.1822. Pen, wash and watercolour. 14i x 13lin
(36-3x33-7'cm)

An illustration of the parable told by Christ in Matthew

xxv, 1-9. On the left are the five wise virgins, who stand
with their lamps prepared in readiness for the bridegroom.
They tell the lamenting and disorganized virgins on the
left to go and buy the oil for their empty lamps from 'them
that sell'. Above them a trumpeting angel heralds the
approach of the bridegroom. Blake painted six versions of
one was probably executed for John
this subject. This
Linnell.

Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum

34. Dante Running from the Wild
Beasts
c.1824-6. Watercolour. I4kx20in (36-5 x 52cm)

His illustrations to Dante's Divine Comedy and their

subsequent engraving, were Blake's last great
undertaking. Like so many projects of these years, they
were the result of a commission by his younger fellow-
artist John Linnell. The watercolours, of which 102 are
recorded, were conceived in 1824. They are in varying
stages of completion. While greatly admiring Dante's
work, Blake characteristically felt that the mediaeval
Italian's vision had shortcomings. He consequently
incorporated revisions of the text in his designs (plate 38).
This scene depicts an incident in the opening canto of the
first book. Hell. Confronted by a lion, a wolf, and a leopard
(who stand for the earthly powers that oppress him),
Dante is rescued by the classical poet Virgil, who is to
become his guide. As in all the other designs, Blake
painted Dante in red to symbolize feeling, and Virgil in
blue, symbolizing the superior quality of imagination.

Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria

Mttvij
3 5. Dante and Virgil Penetrating
the Forest
c.1824-6. Watercolour. I4jx20iin (37-1 x52-7cm)

After having been rescued by Virgil, Dante asks the

classical poet to guide him through the 'deep and wooded
path' (Hell II, 140). If, as has been suggested, the wood
that they are penetrating consists of oak trees, then Blake
may have been adding to their sinister overtones with his
own interpretation. For in Jerusalem he associated oaks
with the ancient druids, whom
he condemned for their
erroneous and savage religious practices. Only partially
finished, this watercolour is one of the most lyrical of the
Dante illustrations, the trees reinforcing the movement of
the poets towards the fearsome dark beneath.

London, Tate Gallery

I
36. The Inscription over the Gate
'

c.1824-6. Watercolour. 2(A x Ulin (52-7 x 37-4cm)

A depiction of the moment in Canto Three of Hell when

Dante and Virgil enter the gates of the infernal region. The
proverbial message above the portal - 'Abandon hope all

ye who enter here' - is written by Blake slightly

incorrectly in the original Italian and in his own
translation. In Blake's eyes the Hell described by Dante,
with all its oppression and legalistic divisions,
approximated most closely to the created material world. It
has been suggested that the four mounds, seen here
through the flaming opening, are intended to represent the
four major continents of this earth.

London, Tate Gallery

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37. The Circle of the Lustful -
Paolo and Francesca
c.1824-7. Watercolour. 14x20iin (37 x 52cm)

This is one most powerful and original of Blake's

of the
Dante illustrations. It depicts one of the incidents most
favoured by the Romantics, the story, in Canto Five of
Hell, of the ill-fated and adulterous lovers, Paolo and
Francesca. Their punishment is to be borne eternally in a
whirling, smiting wind with other sinful lovers in the
second circle of Hell. Blake shows the moment when Paolo
and Francesca are rejoining this whirlwind after having
told their story to Dante. The Italian poet has meanwhile
fainted.

Birmingham, City Museum and Art Gallery

38. The Simoniac Pope
1824-7. Watercolour. 2(M x I4kin (52-7 x 36-8cm)

A scene from Canto 19 of Hell, when Dante and Virgil are

passing through the section of the eighth circle reserved
for simoniacs (or corrupt clergy). The sinner plunged head
downwards into the flames is Pope Nicholas III, whose fate
is remain so suspended until another pope, who has
to
committed a similar sin, replaces him and pushes him
deeper into the flames. At the top Virgil can be seen
bearing Dante away after the interview. Blake has
imaginatively made the opening in which the Pope is
placed transparent so that his whole form can be seen.
The red and blue that are dominant throughout all the
Hell illustrations are alternated here to produce a
flickering vibrancy of great effectiveness.

London, Tate Gallery

^amto h
39. Dante and Virgil Approaching
the Angel who Guards the
Entrance of Purgatory
1824-7. Watercolour. 2(M x I4hin (52-7 x 37- 3cm)

In Canto 9 of Purgatory Dante and Virgil approach the

angel who guards the gate of Purgatory. He is seated at
the top of the three steps, representing sincerity,
contrition,and love, that lead to the portal. The darkening
sky, with thesun dramatically covered with clouds, fits in
with the time of day described by Dante and serves to
emphasize the brightness of the angel. It may also relate to
Blake's criticism of Dante, which suggested that the
latter's vision became he approached the more
less clear as

ethereal regions of Purgatory and Paradise.

London, Tate Gallery

40. Beatrice Addressing Dante
from the Car
1824-7. Watercolour. I4ix2$in (37-2x52-7 cm)

After having passed through Purgatory Dante encounters

Beatrice, the woman whom he adored on earth who is

now to guide him to Paradise. The car

which she
in
appears is based on the description Dante gives in Canto
19 of Purgatory. In this the gryphon who pulls it
symbolizes Christ, and Beatrice herself the Church. The
girls in green, red and white are identifiable by their
colours as, respectively, Hope, Charity and Faith. Certain
alterations that Blake made to Dante's description suggest
that he reinterpreted the theme to indicate the subjection
of the poetic genius of Dante to the female will of Beatrice.

London, Tate Gallery

William vaughan and blacker calmann cooper limited
would like to thank the following for allowing works in their
collections to be reproduced in this book: the Brooklyn
Museum, of William Augustus White (plate 19); Glasgow
gift

Art Gallery, Sterling Maxwell Collection (plates 22 and 23);

Library of Congress, Rosenwald Collection (plates 4-6); the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (plate 25); the National Trust of
Great Britain (plates 23 and 24); the National Gallery of
Victoria, Melbourne (plate 34); Princeton University Library
(plate 7); the Tate Gallery, London (plates 2, 3, 11-14, 16, 21,
29, 32 and 35^0). Plates 1,8,9,15, 26, 27, 30 and 33 are
reproduced by permission of the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam
Museum, Cambridge; plates 10 and 17 are reproduced by
permission of the trustees of the British Museum; and plates
28 and 31 are reproduced by courtesy of the Trustees of the
Pierpont Morgan Library. The Cooper-Bridgeman Library
provided transparencies for plates 24 and 35; John Webb took
the photographs for plates 3, 11, 13, 14, 16, 22, 32 and
38^10. Agnew's of London provided the transparency for
plate 18.
 BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY

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