WILLIAM BLAKE: SOUTHEBY'S AUCTION, 02 MAY 2006

LOT 1

WILLIAM BLAKE
LONDON 1757 - 1827
INSCRIBED TITLE-PAGE DESIGN FOR 'THE GRAVE'
(THE SKELETON RE-ANIMATED)

180,000—260,000 USD
Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 744,000 USD
MEASUREMENTS

measurements note
332 by 266 mm.; 13 1/8 by 10 1/2 in.

DESCRIPTION

inscribed in pen and grayish black ink: The Grave/ a Poem/ By Robert Blair/ Illustrated with 12
Engravings/ by Louis Schiavonetti/ From the Original Inventions/ of/ William Blake/ 1806.

pen and gray and black inks and watercolor over traces of pencil

PROVENANCE

Mrs. Robert Cromek;

Thomas Sivright, Edinburgh;
his sale, Edinburgh, C.B. Tait, February 1, 1836, and sixteen following lawful days, lot 1835, �Volume of
Drawings by Blake, Illustrative of Blair�s Grave, entitled �Black Spirits and White, Blue Spirits and
Grey�,� for �1-5s-0d, possibly to John Stannard (1794-1882);
Henry Lawrence Stannard (1934-2001);
given to a relative in 1987;
Caladonia Books, Glasgow, 2001;
purchased from the above, Fine Books, Ikley and Bates & Hindmarsh, Leeds, by the present owner,
December 2002.

CATALOGUE NOTE

For Blake one of the central themes of The Grave was the resurrection and liberation of the dead, and he
chose this for his title-page. In the poem Blair refers to the awakening of the dead in two separate passages:

But know that thou must render up the dead,

And with high interest too! �
When loud diffussive sound from brazen trump
Of strong-lung�d cherub shall alarm thy captives,
And rouse the long, long sleepers into life,
Day-Light, and Liberty. ------------ (p.28)

When the dread trumpet sounds, the slumb�ring dust,

Not unattentive to the call, shall wake;
And every joint possess it�s proper place,
With a new elegance of form, unknown
To it�s first state. (p. 32)
Here a surprisingly wingless angel, blowing a long, straight horn, rushes down toward a skeleton who has
just pulled his shroud off and is beginning to rise. Behind the latter is what appears to be a stone bench, no
doubt part of his tomb, and around him are flames and billowing clouds of smoke. The beautiful, muscular
angel contrasts starkly with the boney creature who is bracing himself on his elbow and drawing up his
legs, not yet possessing �a new elegance of form� or purified by the surrounding fires.

The trumpeter calling the dead to life is a theme that appears in Blake�s writing and designs over a period
of many years. In �A Vision of the Last Judgment� he writes �The Graves beneath are opened & the
dead awake & obey the call of the Trumpet�A Skeleton begins to Animate starting into life at the
Trumpets sound� (Erdman, p. 548). Blake first combined the visual image of the trumpeter and the
awakening skeleton in an illustration for Young�s Night Thoughts, published in 1799. In Night the
Second, Page 5 (fig. 10) the general aspects of the composition are similar to The Title-page, but the
trumpeting angel is awkwardly positioned; his face is invisible and his right knee juts out toward the
viewer, obscuring part of his torso.

Blake revised the design for the title-page of The Four Zoas (Butlin 337 1, pl. 430), a manuscript he never
published, dateable to c.1797. There he draws the angel from the back, but in essentially the same pose as
in Night Thoughts. The link to the more graceful composition of The Title-page is a drawing in the Yale
Center for British Art, An Angel with a Trumpet (fig. 11). Here we see the fully refined figure, the body
gracefully arced and the legs extended, the head in profile so the delicate features are visible. The only real
difference is that the angel in the Yale drawing faces in the same direction as his arched legs, while in the
present work Blake once again revises the composition so that the figure turns his chin away from the
curve, achieving a perfect balance of dynamism and elegance. This graceful form and careful depiction of
the musculature show Blake at his most classical and reveal his debt to sixteenth century Italian prints.

The inscription, which cites Schiavonetti as the engraver and is dated 1806, suggests that this design was
made after most of the others had been finished, for as late as November 1805, Cromek had wanted Blake
himself to engrave the images. However, it is also possible that Blake made the composition earlier and
added the inscription only at a later date. In November 1805 Cromek�s first prospectus for the publication
lists �A Characteristic Frontispiece� among the completed designs. That description, however, is so
general that it could apply to other known works as well, including The Resurrection of the Dead in the
British Museum (fig. 7) or A Spirit Rising from the Tomb in the Huntington Library (fig. 8). The inscription
on the title-page, whenever it was added, is in Blake's own hand, and it must have been devastating for him
to acknowledge Schiavonetti as the engraver for the project.

We are extremely grateful to Robert N. Essick for his assistance in cataloguing this and the following
eighteen lots.

___________________________________________________________________-

LOT 2

WILLIAM BLAKE
LONDON 1757 - 1827

THE MEETING OF A FAMILY IN HEAVEN

(A FAMILY MEETING IN HEAVEN)

280,000—360,000 USD
Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 576,000 USD
MEASUREMENTS

measurements note
234 by 133 mm.; 9 1/4 by 5 1/4 in.

DESCRIPTION
pen and black ink and watercolor over pencil

CATALOGUE NOTE

In this watercolor, Blake depicts a joyous family reunion. The parents are embracing, as are two pairs of
siblings, while a young son flanks them to the right, his hands raised in a gesture of triumphant joy. The
engraving of this subject appears opposite page 9 in The Grave, but unlike most of the other illustrations, it
does not carry any reference to specific lines of the poem. The text does not describe this specific event, but
commentators have suggested that this composition was inspired by a few lines in Blair�s description of
the reunion of body and soul after the Last Judgment:

...Nor shall the conscious soul

Mistake it's partner; but, amidst the crowd
Singling it's other half, into it's arms
Shall rush, with all th�Impatience of a man
That�s new-come home� (p. 32)

Blake captures this sense of almost overwhelming happiness in the gestures of the parents and children
alike. The adults hold each other tightly and the husband's hand rests on his wife�s buttocks, clasping the
folds of her dress, a gesture with more of the physical than the heavenly about it. This combination of the
physical and sexual with the heavenly, to which Blair's text refers, is emphasized by Blake. He even repeats
the embracing couple among the figures of the saved in various depictions of the Last Judgment. In A
Family in Heaven he makes his views evident by the presence of the angels, who hover above the family,
their hands joined in a prayerful gesture, the tips of their long wings touching, the line of their bodies
mimicking a gothic arch.

A similar pair of angels appear in Christ in the Sepulchre, Guarded by Angels (fig. 5), one of the
illustrations to the Bible that Blake made for Thomas Butts and now in the Victoria and Albert Museum,
London. In the London drawing, the angels are tilted further forward, their gesture more specifically
prayerful as the protectors of the body of the not-yet-risen Christ. In A Family in Heaven the mood is
joyous, the moment having shifted from death to resurrection, but the two drawings are clearly related in
terms of their larger themes as well as this important motif. In Christ in the Sepulchre, the angels�
architectural function is even clearer, since the subject is a tomb. Whether the angels are recollections of
Blake�s early studies at Westminster Abbey (see lot 13) is an interesting question.1

A pencil sketch in the British Museum (Butlin 623, pl. 866) has been suggested as a preliminary design for
this illustration, but if so, it is far removed from the finished work. The composition is horizontal, with the
embracing parents on their knees and their two children, also embracing, interposed between them. The
Meeting of a Family in Heaven is both more physical and more heavenly.

1 See Butlin, vol. I, p. 362, cat. no. 500 and Joseph Burke, �The Eidetic and the Borrowed Image: An
Interpretation of Blake�s Theory and Practice of Art,� in The Visionary Hand. Essays for the Study of
Willam Blake�s Art and Aesthetics, Robert N. Essick, ed., Los Angeles 1973, pp.274-77.
LOT 3

WILLIAM BLAKE
LONDON 1757 - 1827
DEATH OF THE STRONG WICKED MAN
(THE STRONG WICKED MAN DYING)

1,000,000—1,500,000 USD
Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 1,584,000 USD
MEASUREMENTS

measurements note
202 by 255 mm.; 7 15/16 by 10 in.

DESCRIPTION

pen and black ink and watercolor over traces of pencil

CATALOGUE NOTE

In this, one of the most powerful and intense of the watercolors, Blake transforms Blair�s �strong man�
into the �strong wicked man.� Schiavonetti�s etching based on this design appears opposite page 12 of
the poem, part of a section in which Blair catalogues various attributes valued by mankind, -- beauty,
strength and study -- that will be vitiated by death. Blair' s depiction of the strong man's death takes up
more than a page, though only the last two lines of the verses below are cited in the engraving.

Strength too! thou surly, and less gentle Boast

Of those that laugh loud at the village ring!
A fit of common sickness pulls thee down
With greater ease, than e�er thou didst the stripling
That rashly dar�d thee to th'unequal Fight.

�What now avail

The strong-built sinewy limbs, and well spread shoulders?
See, how he tugs for life, and lays about him,
Mad with his Pain! Eager he catches hold
Of what comes next to hand, and grasps it hard,
Just like a creature drowning! Hideous sight!
O how his eyes stand out, and stare full ghastly!
While the distemper�s rank and deadly venom
Shoots like a burning arrow 'cross his bowels,
And drinks his marrow up. Heard you that groan!
It was his last. (p.12)

The character of the dying man is only treated in passing by Blair, as he mentions his being boastful and
surly, though perhaps the ghastliness of his end implies that he had led a wicked life. Blake here equates
strength with evil, linking the two in the title to the design. He shows the man, his head twisted to the side,
his face distorted with pain and terror, his rigid body barely touching the mat. His fingers are claws
clutching the bed clothes; lying just beyond his right hand is the goblet he apparently broke and over-turned
in his death agony. His soul, equally tormented and surrounded by flames, flies out the window. The two
grief-stricken women add to the emotional intensity; the one, identified in 'Of the Designs' as the daughter,
stands quite still, in contrast to the turmoil around her; the other, identified as the wife, her mouth open, her
hands beside her face, takes on the appearance in her mournful horror. She almost climbs onto the man�s
pallet in her desperation, existing in a spatial no-man�s land, somewhere between the strong man and his
fleeing soul.

There is a rapid pencil drawing in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Butlin 624, recto, pl. 860) in which
Blake sketches the figure of the dying man and the two grieving women. It may be his first idea for the
composition for although he establishes the major elements of the group, he shows the daughter kneeling
rather than standing. In the final design her erect pose is a counterbalance to the other, more dynamic
figures.

As befits its subject, The Strong Wicked Man is one of the most intensely colored designs in this set.
Though the watercolor is applied with great subtlety, as in the other compositions, it seems to have a
greater depth. The deep, nearly opaque blue surrounding the soul and the flickering red flames stand out
from the dark, neutral gray of the surrounding room.

The Death of the Strong Wicked Man forms a virtual trio with The Soul Hovering Over the Body (lot 7)
and The Death of the Good Old Man (lot 14). All are set in a confined space with a single window and
show the soul leaving the body of a dying or dead man. The Strong Wicked Man and the Good Old Man
can be seen as direct opposites with the emotions, characters and even the very composition reversed. The
relation of the Strong Wicked Man and the Soul Hovering is somewhat more complex. The latter is a much
more peaceful scene, the body of the dying man absolutely still. But one can see the echo of the anguish of
the mourning widow in the hovering soul. Her body has the same long arc, and while she is more
composed, her hands are roughly in the same position, but with the palms turned outward. Although the
illustrations can be seen as paired opposites, these more subtle transitions give Blake�s watercolors a
thematic texture that binds them all together.

___________________________________________________________________________________

LOT 4

WILLIAM BLAKE
LONDON 1757 - 1827
'THE GRAVE PERSONIFIED'

1,000,000—1,500,000 USD
Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 912,000 USD
___________________________________________________________________________

MEASUREMENTS

measurements note
203 by 297 mm.; 8 by 11 3/4 in.

DESCRIPTION
inscribed in pencil on the mount below: The Grave Personified -- Unfinish'd; on the verso of the mount
center left: Not; and with a
rough sketch of a squatting figure also on the verso of the mount.

pen and black and gray inks and watercolor over traces of pencil

LITERATURE AND REFERENCES

Bentley 2001, pp. 482-83, note 58;

Butlin 2002, p. 72-73 and reproduced p. 73.

1 Butlin 2002, p. 73.

2 See also Butlin 2002, p. 72.

CATALOGUE NOTE

The discovery of this watercolor alone would have been an important event, much less finding it with its
eighteen companions. Blake has described a huge winged female seated at the entrance to a cavern on a
pedestal or altar flanked by flames. Huddled down behind her are two robed female figures, their heads
bent over their knees and their faces hidden by their hair. They are seated at the foot of a staircase or ramp
leading deeper into the cave, but the huge figure blocks our view of what is beyond. As the setting, the
figure's attributes and the inscription on the mount make clear, she represents the Grave. She holds two
bunches of poppies in her outstretched hands, flowers symbolic of sleep and, by extension, death. Her
wings are those of a moth, a creature of the night. The patterning is suggestive of the Emperor moth, which
have a similar eye-shaped design and rounded compartments, but Blake carries the design well beyond
what one would see in nature. The hunched figures flanking the pedestal in their heavy robes, continue the
theme of sleep and death.

It has been suggested that The Grave Personified was the 'characteristic frontispiece' mentioned in
Cromek's first prospectus for the publication.1 Its horizontal format, however, may indicate otherwise.

The Grave Personified has a companion piece of roughly the same dimensions, A Destroying Deity: A
Winged Figure Grasping Thunderbolts, in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (fig. 12).2 In the latter, Blake
depicts an equally large male figure seated on a similar pedestal at the entrance to a cavern, though the
space is more difficult to read. There are no figures beside the altar, as in The Grave Personified, but some
can be seen roughly indicated in the middle distance. The imposing figure with his bat wings and lightening
bolts, replacing the moth wings and poppies, is probably the personification of death itself. In Death
Pursuing the Soul Through the Avenues of Life (fig. 9), a design mentioned in Cromek's first prospectus for
the publication, but in the end never engraved, Blake portrays Death in a similar fashion. He is a powerful
bearded figure with the same bat wings and carries a flaming torch rather than lightening bolts. Both The
Grave Personified and A Destroying Deity are clearly related to A Second Alternative Design for a Title-
Page to Blair�s Grave in the Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino (fig. 8), which shows a
pedestal flanked by two female figures, one with bat wings and the other with moth wings.

The inscription Not on the verso of the mount is found on three other drawings from this group (lots 12, 17
and 19). It may have been added in Cromek's shop and signaled that the design was not to be engraved; or
it may be from the hand of a later owner indicating that the design was not engraved. The rough sketch on
the back is equally puzzling, for it describes a figure in a posture similar to the representation of the Grave,
as well as many other figures that populate Blake's art.
_______________________________________________________________________

LOT 5

WILLIAM BLAKE
LONDON 1757 - 1827
'WHILST SURFEITED UPON THY DAMASK CHEEK, THE HIGH-FED WORM IN LAZY VOLUMES
ROLL'D, RIOTS UNSCAR'D'

700,000—1,000,000 USD

MEASUREMENTS

measurements note
196 by 133 mm.; 7 3/4 by 5 1/4 in.

DESCRIPTION

pen and black and gray inks and watercolor over pencil

LITERATURE AND REFERENCES

Butlin 2002, p. 71;

Bentley, 2001, pp. 482-83, note 58.

CATALOGUE NOTE

Like the previous lot, this composition was never engraved as an illustration. The specific subject derives
from a passage by Blair on the transience of physical beauty, which will be destroyed in death.

Methinks I see thee with thy head low laid;

Whilst, surfeited upon thy damask cheek,
The high-fed worm, in lazy volumes roll'd,
Riots unscar'd. For this was all thy caution? (p.11)

These lines fall within a larger section of the poem in which Blair portrays death as the great equalizer. In
Blake's interpretation the young beauty seems well-aware that her charms are fleeting. She points to her
cheek and to the worm on the ground while her suitor gazes into the empty grave. The radiant sunset
reinforces the idea of time's swift passage.
As in The Widow Embracing Her Husband's Grave at the Yale Center for British Art (fig. 6) and A Father
and Two Children Beside an Open Grave (lot 15), the setting is contemporary and conventional. The
graveyard and the Gothic entrance to the church are strikingly similar to those in the Widow Embracing
Her Husband's Grave, though seen from different viewpoints. The figures themselves seemed to have
stepped from one illustration to another, pausing only to put on or remove their hats.

Blake's treatment of the young woman is extremely refined. He delicately models her limbs with gray brush
strokes and a few accents of pale blue, then adds touches of pink to her cheeks, breast, elbow and neck.
Blake's handling of the young suitor, or stripling -- as Blair calls him -- is more summary, drawing his
clothing with bold brush strokes and using just the pencil to indicate the details of the front of his costume.
The young man himself is a figure type that Blake used throughout his career, from the early Songs of
Innocence to the Job engravings.

LOT 6

WILLIAM BLAKE
LONDON 1757 - 1827
THE REUNION OF THE SOUL & THE BODY
(THE RE-UNION OF SOUL AND BODY)

900,000—1,200,000 USD
Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 1,024,000 USD

MEASUREMENTS

measurements note
237 by 175 mm.; 9 5/16 by 6 7/8 in.

DESCRIPTION

pen and black and gray inks and watercolor over traces of pencil

CATALOGUE NOTE

The Reunion of the Soul & the Body is the last illustration in Cromek�s edition of The Grave. Although
no specific passage is inscribed on the engraving, Blake takes his cue from the following lines:

When the dread trumpet sounds, the slumb�ring dust,

Not unattentive to the call, shall wake;
And every joint possess it�s proper place,
With a new elegance of form, unknown
To it�s first state. Nor shall the conscious soul
Mistake it�s partner; but, amidst the crowd
Singling it�s other half, into it�s arms
Shall rush� (p.32)

This watercolor is the counterpart to The Soul Hovering Over the Body (lot 7). But while Blake chose the
quietest moment from Blair�s poem to illustrate that subject, here he illustrates the most dramatic. The
soul rushes down, her hair and drapery caught by the wind, and wraps her arms around the newly
resurrected body. He is half nude, with just some drapery, perhaps his shroud, clinging to his legs. He has
only just risen from his grave and his exquisitely fashioned outstretched foot still touches its side. The
surrounding flames are not the flames of hell, but the purifying flames of the last days.

Here the reunion between the body and the soul goes beyond the spiritual and has a sexual element
completely absent from the poem. This is not surprising, since Blake was not shy about describing or
picturing the joys of sexuality. As in The Meeting of a Family in Heaven (lot 2), in which Blake elaborated
on the sexual elements only implied by Blair, Blake uses the poem as a jumping off point from which he
creates his own interpretation of life and death and the relation of the physical to the spiritual nature of
mankind.

Muted yellows and reds, the latter perhaps suggesting the passionate nature of the reunion, figure
prominently in Blake's palette for this design. The composition is one of the most elegant in the series, as is
Blake�s brush work. The flames and background are drawn in broad, loose strokes, while the delicate
shading of the flesh is stippled in tiny, intense strokes of blue.

LOT 7

WILLIAM BLAKE
LONDON 1757 - 1827

THE SOUL HOVERING OVER THE BODY RELUCTANTLY PARTING WITH LIFE
(THE SOUL HOVERING OVER THE BODY)

700,000—1,000,000 USD

MEASUREMENTS

measurements note
160 by 227 mm.; 6 1/2 by 8 15/16 in.

DESCRIPTION

pen and black and gray inks and watercolor over traces of pencil
CATALOGUE NOTE

In the published edition of The Grave, this design is placed opposite a wrenching passage describing the
soul leaving the body at death. Blair describes the soul as �frantic� as she �raves round the walls� and
�shrieks for help.� Blake, however, has chosen to illustrate the last and quietest lines of the passage, in
which the soul is reconciled to the parting.

How wishfully she looks

On all she�s leaving, now no longer her�s!
A little longer, yet a little longer,
O might she stay to wash away her stains,
And fit her for her passage! (p. 16)

This choice reflects Blake�s more positive outlook; for him death is a transition rather than a permanent
separation.

In The Soul Hovering over the Body the man has clearly died. He is laid out on a bier and his body has the
same stony quality as Christ in the Sepulchre, Guarded by Angels (fig. 5) or The Counseller, King, Warrior,
Mother & Child (lot 13). A preliminary sketch in the Tate (fig. 12A) is quite different in feeling. Although
the soul is quite similarly conceived, even to the gesture of the hands, the body appears to be that of a living
person who is just sleeping. Blake draws him naked, lying on his side, his musculature carefully delineated,
on his head is a laurel wreath and under his hand a lyre.

What is surprising to the present-day viewer is Blake�s depiction of the soul as a woman when the body is
that of a man. That dichotomy is, however, supported by Blair�s text. More shocking to his
contemporaries was the fact that he included a corporeal representation of the soul in the same composition
as the body. In an anonymous review of The Grave in Scots Magazine, November 1808, the writer takes
Blake to task:

There is just one circumstance, which runs through many of these pieces, which we cannot quite go along
with; this is the representation of the soul in a bodily form. Such an idea we think is greatly too bold; nor is
there any thing in the manner which can atone for the defect in the original conception�.It would even
have been tolerable had the soul been introduced by itself without its bodily companion�1

1 The review is printed in full in David Groves, �Blake, The Grave�and Edinburgh Literary Society, in
Blake: An Illustrated Quarterly, vol. 24, no 1, summer 1990, p. 250.

LOT 8

WILLIAM BLAKE
LONDON 1757 - 1827
THE DESCENT OF MAN INTO THE VALE OF DEATH

700,000—1,000,000 USD

MEASUREMENTS

measurements note
234 by 135 mm.; 9 1/4 by 5 5/16 in.
 DESCRIPTION

pen and gray and black inks and watercolor over traces of pencil

CATALOGUE NOTE

In the last third of the poem Blair offers a long catalogue of the inhabitants of the grave, dividing them by
country, religion, social status, profession, age, sex, state of health, moral character, etc. Blake does not
attempt to illustrate all these different types, but concentrates instead on a select group, corresponding
loosely to the middle section of the passage:

�here the child

Of a span long, that never saw the sun,
Nor press�d the nipple, strangled in life�s porch.
Here is the mother with her sons and daughters;
The barren wife; and long-demurring maid
�
Here are the prude severe, and gay coquette,
The sober widow, and the young green virgin,
Cropp�d like a rose before �tis fully blown,
Or half it�s worth disclos�d. Strange medley here!
Here garrulous old age winds up his tale;
And jovial youth, of lightsome vacant heart� (p. 22)

His conception is actually quite traditional but combines two related themes, the Ages of Man and the
Journey of Life. These are subjects that Blake used in his poetry as well as his drawings and prints, as, for
example, The Gates of Paradise. In medieval iconography the Journey of Life was often depicted as figures
going up and down stairs.1 Here Blake combines that setting with the caves and caverns that appear so
frequently in these designs for The Grave like The Grave Personified, Death's Door and The Soul
Exploring the Recesses of the Grave (lots 4, 10 and 11).

In The Descent of Man Blake sets the figures in a large, underground cavern, headed by a staircase, from
which various figures move further and further down into the depths of the earth. There is no apparent
order to the figures. A stooped person with a walking stick and an old man crawling down the stairs are
separated from another depiction of old age, a man on crutches, by a mother holding a baby and two
youthful figures who are dashing down the stairs. In a related design in the British Museum (fig. 13), Blake
divides the underground cavern into various smaller caves in which he sets four death-bed scenes. These
seem to echo Blair's lines 'Here friends and foes/Lie close, unmindful of their former feuds' (p. 22). In the
present design, with its strong vertical format, Blake simplifies the structure, eliminating the separate rooms
and emphasizing the inexorable downward journey into the grave.

1 Essick and Paley, p.62.

LOT 9
WILLIAM BLAKE
LONDON 1757 - 1827

THE DAY OF JUDGMENT

(THE LAST JUDGMENT)

1,500,000—2,000,000 USD

MEASUREMENTS

measurements note
270 by 222 mm.; 10 9/16 by 8 3/4 in.

DESCRIPTION

pen and gray and black inks and watercolor over traces of pencil

CATALOGUE NOTE

The subject of the Last Judgment is one that preoccupied Blake for much of his life. Apocalyptic imagery
can be found throughout his work, from his Continental Prophecies of the 1790s to his conclusive
illuminated epic, Jerusalem. Some of his most famous compositions, like the two versions of The Great
Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun, both from the series of over 80 watercolors he made for
Thomas Butts, are based on specific events from Revelation. He depicted the last judgment at least nine
different times; this illustration for The Grave is probably the earliest version.1 His watercolor illustrates,
but goes well beyond Blair's brief passage:

But know that though must render up the dead,

And with high interest too! they are not thine;
But only in thy keeping for a season,
Till the great promis�d day of restitution;
When loud diffusive sound from brazen trump
Of strong-lung�d cherub shall alarm they captives,
And rouse the long, long sleepers into life,
Day-light, and liberty. � (p.28)

The present design may have been based in part on a watercolor dated 1806, now at Pollok House,
Glasgow (Butlin 639), already in preparation in the fall of 1805. Without such a model to work from, it is
unlikely that Blake could have conceived and executed such a complex design in the short time between
receiving the Grave commission from Cromek and submitting the watercolors to the publisher.
Of all the versions of this subject, the present work is simpler, bolder and more concentrated, with fewer
souls being judged, so that the focus is on the central portions of the composition. As in the Glasgow
watercolor, Christ is seated on a throne, an open book on his lap. But rather than adhering to strict
centrality, Blake turns Christ�s head slightly, so He is looking toward the saved. Flanking Christ are
recording angels; beyond them, on either side, larger angels holding open the Book of Life and the Book of
Death, and below are the souls of the saved and the damned. Most striking are the colossal angels at the
center of the composition, perhaps inspired by Blair. Blake has put together two different themes � the
angels sounding their trumpets and the defending angels of the war in heaven � which in traditional
representations of the Apocalypse are separate events.2 Here they are all in a tight grouping, two angels
grasping the swords at their sides, while a �strong-lung�d cherub� blows a gigantic horn that raises up
toward Christ. The only indications of his companions are the bells of two more horns also emitting flames.

Blake drew on various textual and pictorial sources for his composition. Michelangelo�s Last Judgment in
the Sistine Chapel, widely known through engravings, was the most famous depiction of the subject. But
the fresco, with its active, gesturing Christ at the center, is a long way from Blake�s depiction. Although
Blake may have been inspired by some of the falling damned, the overall construction, with the hieratic
rings of prophets, judges and angels flanking Christ, owes far more to medieval church portals and
manuscripts than to Michelangelo. But in the end, so much of Blake�s imagery is personal, a symbolic
vocabulary that runs through all his works. The figure of the falling man bound by a serpent, for example,
appears in The First Book of Urizen, one of his great prophetic books dealing with creation and the
enslavement of spirit (fig. 14).

This is one of the most intensely colored designs, as befits the subject. The strong chrome yellow encircling
the throne of God is not found anywhere else in the group. It is also the design in which Blake most
manipulated the colors. We can see that he delicately scraped away the surface in the blue around the throne
and in the clouds to modulate the color, and how he used delicate stippling in the faces of Christ and the
kneeling angels.

1 Butlin catalogues ten drawings and temperas, two of which are untraced. Cat. nos. Essick and Paley (pp.
215-16) refer to another composition that may predate the present drawing. It is a color print described in
the early catalogue of Blake�s works by William Rossetti, who unfortunately was not always accurate in
his identification of subject matter.

2 Paley and Essick, p. 65 suggest that angels withdrawing the swords from their sheaths comes from
Ezekiel.

LOT 10

WILLIAM BLAKE
LONDON 1757 - 1827
DEATH'S DOOR

1,000,000—1,500,000 USD

MEASUREMENTS

measurements note
239 by 138 mm.; 9 3/8 by 5 7/16 in.
 DESCRIPTION

pen and black ink and watercolor over pencil

CATALOGUE NOTE

Death�s Door is an iconic image, appearing and reappearing in Blake�s work throughout his career. In
what is perhaps the earliest example, from his notebook (N71), Blake depicts a bent old man going through
an open door. Although the surrounding text appears to be unrelated, the small image is clearly labeled
Deaths Door. Although tiny, all the major elements are there: the heavy stone door frame, the crutch, the
windblown hair.

This same figure reappears in For the Children: The Gates of Paradise and America, both of 1793, but it is
in the design for The Grave that Blake completes the composition by adding the nude figure of the youth
above.1 In doing so, he transforms the message of Blair�s poem from that of death as an ending to death
as a moment of transition

Tis but a night, a long moonless night;

We make the grave our bed, and then are gone! (p.32)

The commentator in 'Of the Designs' describes the composition as:

The door opening, that seems to make utter darkness visible; age, on crutches, hurried by a tempest into it.
Above is the renovated man seated in light and glory.'

The 'renovated man,' the resurrected soul, radiates light; it blazes from him as star-shaped corona. If there
were any doubt about the meaning of this figure, one need only look back to America plate 8 (fig. 15) in
which a very similar nude man sits on an actual grave, a skull resting beyond his right hand.2 Just below
the figure are Blake�s powerful verses:

The morning comes, the night decays, the watchmen leave their stations;
The grave is burst, the spices shed, the linen wrapped up;
The bones of death, the cov�ring clay, the sinews shrunk & dry�d.
Reviving shake, inspiring move, breathing! awakening!
Spring like redeemed captives when their bonds are burst:

The fusion of the two designs into Death�s Door becomes a central image in Blake�s interpretation (or
perhaps revision) of Blair�s poem. It was also the only design Blake etched himself. The white-line
etching of Death�s Door (fig. 2) repeats in reverse all the elements of the watercolor apart from the
flowers growing to the right of the door, replaced in the etching by a thorny vine on the left and some spiky
vegetation on the right. It is generally thought that this was a sample print that Blake gave to Cromek and
which horrified the publisher so much he hired Schiavonetti as his engraver. Certainly this idiosyncratic
work has little in common with conventional book illustration of the period. But in comparison to
Schiavonetti�s print (fig. 3), Blake�s etching is filled with power and emotion. The very use of white
line against the black background lends the work a kind of shimmering radiance that accords with Blake�s
idea of transformation and transcendence.

The watercolor itself radiates light. Blake uses the reserve of the paper, accented with bright strokes of
yellow, to create the aura around the seated figure; much of the rest of the sheet is also left uncolored. The
nude figure of the youth is accented in the very palest pink. The blue tones that dominate many of the other
subjects is here confined mainly to the robes of the old man.

1There are two drawings, a pencil sketch formerly in the Shields collection but now lost, and a pencil
drawing reworked by another hand, in the Carnegie Museum, that predate the watercolor for The Grave.
See Essick and Paley, Op.cit.�p 219.

2The figure of the rising youth first appears in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell of 1790.

LOT 11

WILLIAM BLAKE
LONDON 1757 - 1827

THE SOUL EXPLORING THE RECESSES OF THE GRAVE

700,000—1,000,000 USD
Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 632,000 USD

MEASUREMENTS

measurements note
235 by 119 mm.; 9 1/4 by 4 11/16 in.

DESCRIPTION

pen and black and gray inks and watercolor over traces of pencil

CATALOGUE NOTE

In this haunting image, Blake has left the confines of Blair�s poem. Unlike most of the other engravings,
the illustration of The Soul Exploring the Recesses of the Grave bears no reference to any lines in the
poem, and commentators have not been able to link it to a specific passage. The description in 'Of the
Designs,' simply reads:

The Soul, prior to the dissolution of the Body, exploring through and beyond the tomb, and there
discovering the emblems of mortality and of immortality.

Taken in the context of the poem as a whole, this design is clearly a pair to and in some ways a mirror
image of, Death�s Door. The main actor is an extremely elegant young woman as opposed to a stooped
old man. The setting in The Soul Exploring is clearly a cave, while in Death's Door it is a rough hewn but
distinctly man-made structure. Within the first is a corpse, laid out on the ground, the body surrounded by
flames; in the second is an empty bier, awaiting the arrival of the old man. Above the cave in The Soul
Exploring is a young man, partly clothed, his arms raised in a gesture of surprise or fear. He is bathed in the
cool dim light of the moon, its crescent form visible between his legs, while in the background are distant
peaks of mountains. Above the building in the second is another young man, nude this time, his body
radiating light as if he were himself the sun.

Given the complexity of Blake�s imagery, it is not surprising that the subject here has been interpreted by
different scholars in precisely opposite ways: as a figure awakened to immortality or as man warned of
death he cannot see.1 Most interpretations, however, lean toward the latter view and since Death�s Door
is almost universally recognized as an image of transcendence and resurrection, The Soul Exploring the
Recesses of the Grave would be one of mortality and death. As Essick and Paley note, everything here
suggests obscurity and restraint -- the darkness, the tentative gestures, even the woman�s tightly coiled
hair.2 The very coloring of the design reinforces this imagery. The cool tones of the sky and the wan yellow
moon are eerily reflected off the body of the young man, but shed very little light and no hope.

Blake�s handling of the medium in this composition is extraordinarily subtle. He modulates the color of
the sky so it gradually becomes paler and thinner in the areas surrounding the young man. He also scrapes
away some of the surface around the figure, perhaps also as a way or lightening the color or in order to
redraw the contours of the figure itself. While the composition is dominantly blue and gray, including the
flames surrounding the body, Blake adds a few touches of pink to the figure.
There is a preparatory sketch for the watercolor in the British Museum (Butlin 629, pl. 862), which has all
the major elements of the composition and is roughly the same size (252 by 139 mm.)

1 Helmstadter, pp. 54-56 and Essick and Paley, pp.66-67, respectively

2 Essick and Paley, p. 66-67, who knew the composition only from Schiavonetti's engraving.

LOT 12

WILLIAM BLAKE
LONDON 1757 - 1827
'THE GAMBOLS OF GHOSTS ACCORDING WITH THEIR AFFECTIONS PREVIOUS TO THE
FINAL JUDGEMENT'

700,000—1,000,000 USD

MEASUREMENTS

measurements note
269 by 207 mm.; 10 5/8 by 8 1/8 in.

DESCRIPTION

traces of a pencil inscription on the mount below, largely erased, the last two words may read variously
D..l... or virtuously D..l... and inscribed on the verso of the mount upper left Not

pen and black and gray inks and watercolor over traces of pencil
LITERATURE AND REFERENCES

Bentley 2001, pp. 482-83, note 58;

Butlin 2002, p. 71 and reproduced p. 69.

1Essick and Paley, p. 49. They did not know of the existence of this watercolor when they made up their
pairings.

CATALOGUE NOTE

The Gambols of Ghosts is one of the watercolors that Flaxman singled out in his letter of October 18, 1805,
but it was not included in Cromek�s edition of The Grave. The design appears to illustrate an early
passage of the poem in which Blair evokes images of the graveyard.

Well do I know thee by thy trusty yew,

Cheerless, unsocial plant! That loves to dwell
�Midst sculls and coffins, epitaphs and worms;
Where light-heel�d ghosts and visionary shades,
Beneath the wan cold moon (as fame reports)
Embodied thick, perform their mystic rounds. (p. 2)

A preparatory drawing for the design in the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven (Butlin 636, pl. 863)
has all the major elements of the composition and, before the discovery of this watercolor, was sometimes
associated with Flaxman's letter. A less finished drawing in the National Gallery of Art, Washington (fig.
16) is also related to The Gambols of Ghosts and may shed some light on Blake's imagery. It is described as
A Resurrection Scene but the dominanat compositional element of the arc of figures rising into the sky has
much the same feeling as the watercolor for The Grave. Specific motifs are repeated as well, like the
church, the moon and the ghosts emerging from the ground. The Gambols of Ghosts is itself a kind of
resurrection but without a judging Christ and therefore without any of the associated hierarchical elements.

Using Essick and Paley's scheme of opposite pairs,1 one could match The Gambols of Ghosts with The
Final Judgement (lot 9). The title itself remains something of a mystery. Flaxman�s description appears no
where in Blair's poem and the few traces of the penciled inscription on the mount do not seem to
corrrespond either.

The composition is suitably frenetic and complicated to embody the movements of 'light-heel�d ghosts'
and goes far beyond Blair�s brief description. Blake creates two moving circles of figures perpendicular
to each other -- one, which goes around the tree, is made up of dancing or running ghosts, the other, which
starts at the ground and circles up and over the tree, begins with ghosts emerging from the ground and ends
with one flying through the church door. Cutting through the second circle is a procession of saved souls
slowly entering the church. The effect is of constant movement and turmoil that makes it difficult to
distinguish the saved and the damned at first glance.

Blake�s palette adds to the eeriness of the scene. The overall color scheme is gray and blue with only a
few touches of red, as on the angry figure of the male ghost emerging from the ground at the left. Even 'the
wan cold moon' is gray with only the slightest touch of yellow, and the highlights on the figures are truly
ghostly.
LOT 13

WILLIAM BLAKE
LONDON 1757 - 1827

THE COUNSELLER, KING, WARRIOR, MOTHER & CHILD, IN THE TOMB

(THE COUNSELLOR, KING, WARRIOR, MOTHER & CHILD)

700,000—1,000,000 USD

MEASUREMENTS

measurements note
150 by 234 mm.; 5 7/8 by 9 1/4 in.

DESCRIPTION

pen and black ink and watercolor over pencil

CATALOGUE NOTE

This watercolor does not appear to illustrate a specific verse, but speaks to the general concept of death as a
leveler. In the published version of The Grave the engraving based on this design appears opposite page 11,
the beginning lines of which address that concept:

When self-esteem, or other�s adulation,

Would cunningly persuade us we were something
Above the common level of our kind,
The Grave gainsays the smooth-complexion�d flatt'ry,
And with blunt truth acquaints us what we are.

Executed in an almost monochromatic range of grays and green, Blake�s watercolor captures the absolute
stillness of the tomb. The composition is closely related to a drawing in pen and wash now in a private
collection in Great Britain, which Butlin dates to c.1780-85 (fig. 17).1 However, there the five figures are
clearly corpses stretched out on a battlefield, while in the watercolor they are clearly within a tomb and, in
fact, look more like medieval tomb sculptures than corpses. Even the knight�s crossed legs suggest limbs
modeled in stone rather than flesh. The figures are rigidly aligned, holding their identifying attributes �
the counsellor�s scroll, the king�s scepter, the knight�s sword and the mother's child. The only real
deviance from this hieratic approach is the mother, who is slightly off line, her head tilted to the child, and
her features not quite so stony as the others�.
The inspiration for this representation dates to Blake�s early days as an apprentice to James Basire, the
engraver. Basire sent him to Westminster Abbey to copy the tombs and other carvings, and Blake
apparently spent many happy months making drawings. Some were later engraved and used in Richard
Gough�s Sepulchral Monuments in Great Britain, Part I, of 1786. That Blake drew upon these images
some twenty years later is not surprising given the subject he was illustrating and the fact that he seems
never to have forgotten a motif.

This depiction of the dead as if they were tomb sculptures can be found in other watercolors in this series:
The Soul Hovering Over the Body (lot 7) and The Death of the Good Old Man (lot 14). In all cases the
bodies are draped and the contours are barely evident. Their heads are generally on low pillows or a rolled
mat. In The Counseller even the coloring is suggestive of stone. Perhaps turning the figures to stone was
Blake�s way of eternalizing them as well as emphasizing the universal nature of death.

1Butlin, vol. I, pp. no. 136.

LOT 14

WILLIAM BLAKE
LONDON 1757 - 1827
THE DEATH OF THE GOOD OLD MAN
(THE GOOD OLD MAN DYING)

550,000—700,000 USD

MEASUREMENTS

measurements note
202 by 258 mm.; 7 15/16 by 10 3/16 in.

DESCRIPTION

pen and black and gray inks and watercolor over traces of pencil

CATALOGUE NOTE

The Death of the Good Old Man is another composition that Flaxman singled out in his letter of 1805. It is
also one in which Blake enlarged upon but did not contradict Blair�s text:

...Sure the last end

Of the good man is peace. How calm his exit!
Night-dews fall not more gently to the ground,
Nor weary worn-out winds expire so soft.
Behold him in the ev�ning-tide of life,
A life well spent, whose early care it was
His riper years should not upbraid his green:
By unperceiv�d degrees he wears away;
Yet like the sun seems larger at his setting! (p. 30)

In contrast to the Wicked Man, the Good Man dies at peace, surrounded by the members of his family,
while his soul is carried off by angels. The family members look rather like angels themselves in their
prayerful posture. Their poses and the way they cluster around the old man are reminiscent of sixteenth
century tomb sculptures, or Flaxman�s own designs. Here a chalice and loaf of bread, a reference to the
Eucharist, rest on a table, instead of the broken wine goblet the Wicked Man clutches in his death agony.
Beneath the Good Man's hand rests an open Bible, with the title The New Testament prominently visible.
Everything reinforces the piety of the figure.
Blake has subdued his palette, with near pastel shades replacing the bold coloring of the Strong Wicked
Man. Pale blues and grays predominate, but there are subtle touches of other colors, as in the slight dabs of
brown and deep red on the loaf and chalice respectively. This very restraint reveals Blake�s mastery of the
watercolor medium.

LOT 15

WILLIAM BLAKE
LONDON 1757 - 1827
'A FATHER AND TWO CHILDREN BESIDE AN OPEN GRAVE AT NIGHT BY LANTERN LIGHT'

350,000—550,000 USD
Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 329,600 USD

MEASUREMENTS

measurements note
175 by 235 mm.; 6 7/8 by 9 1/4 in.

DESCRIPTION

pen and black and gray inks and watercolor over pencil

LITERATURE AND REFERENCES

Butlin 2002, p. 71;

Bentley 2001, pp. 482-83, note 58.

1Butlin, cat. no. 137, recto, p. 52 and Butlin 2002, p. 71, note 4.
CATALOGUE NOTE

This design is another of the group of seven that were never engraved. Although the event is not
specifically described in Blair's poem, the subject is clearly part of the general theme of loss. It mirrors but
is opposite to The Widow Embracing Her Husband's Grave (fig. 6). In A Father and Two Children the
missing family member is the wife and mother; in The Widow she is the only family member present. In A
Father and Two Children, the scene takes place in a graveyard on a blusterly night with only the family
present. In contrast, The Widow Embracing is a sunlit scene with an elegant couple in the background who
respond to the widow's grief. Furthermore, the mourners in A Father and Two Children are clearly stricken
but contained, while the widow knows no such restraint as she flings herself on her husband's grave.

A Father and Two Children is more loosely executed than any of the other watercolors offered here. While
the faces are worked up in some detail, the surroundings are indicated by quick brush strokes, thereby
leaving the trees and the lantern rather two dimensional. Whether Blake intended to work on it further is
difficult to say, but the overall effect is to emphasize the harshness of the elements as the family kneels
beside the mother's open grave.

As in the case of The Counseller, King, Warrior, Mother & Child (lot 13), this design derives from a much
earlier drawing. The Burial Scene in the McGill University Library (Butlin 137, recto), which Butlin dates
to the early 1780s,1 has all the major elements of the composition, though more roughly indicated.

LOT 16

WILLIAM BLAKE
LONDON 1757 - 1827
'HEAVEN'S PORTALS WIDE EXPAND TO LET HIM IN'

350,000—550,000 USD
Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 329,600 USD

MEASUREMENTS

measurements note
237 by 128 mm.; 9 5/8 by 5 1/16 in.

DESCRIPTION

pen and black and gray inks and watercolor over pencil

LITERATURE AND REFERENCES

Bentley 2001, pp. 482-83, note 58;
Butlin 2002, p. 71.

1Essick and Paley, pp. 77 and 224-45.

CATALOGUE NOTE

This design was never engraved, nor was it mentioned in Flaxman's letter or Cromek's first prospectus.
However, Essick and Paley had postulated its existence from two sketches of ascending figures that were
drawn on the same sheets as known designs for The Grave1

The subject derives from Blair's description of the resurrection and ascension of Christ, and specifically to
the passage:

Heaven's portals wide expand to let him in;

Nor are his friends shut out: as a great prince
Not for himself alone procures admission,
But for his train; it was his royal will,
That where he is there should his followers be.
Death only lies between, a gloomy path! (p. 29)

In Blake's vocabulary, the Gothic doorway or archway often refers to heaven, and Christ's companions here
are clearly the saved. The initial conception may derive from a more traditional interpretation of the
Ascension, a watercolor made for Thomas Butts, now in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (fig. 19).
Here and in the Cambridge drawing Christ spreads his arms wide as he floats up to heaven. His body is
absolutely weightless, as if he were being pulled upward by an outside force. His companions in the present
drawing are for the most part as immune to gravity as he is. Yet, in spite of apparent weightlessness, the
figures terain a physicality greater than disembodied spirits, as is underscored by the embracing couple on
the left and, in particular, the man's hand on the woman's buttock. This gesture recalls the husband and wife
in Meeting of a Family in Heaven (lot 2).

Heaven's Portals shows a greater range of colors than most of the watercolors in this group, and has a pastel
tonality that reinforces the unadulterated feeling of goodness and joy.

LOT 17

WILLIAM BLAKE
LONDON 1757 - 1827
'OUR TIME IS FIX'D, AND ALL OUR DAYS ARE NUMBER'D'

350,000—550,000 USD
Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 318,400 USD

MEASUREMENTS

measurements note
234 by 177 mm.; 9 1/4 by 7 in.
 DESCRIPTION

traces of a pencil inscription on the mount below, largely erased and illegible and inscribed in pencil on the
verso of the mount upper right: Not

pen and black and gray inks and watercolor over traces of pencil

LITERATURE AND REFERENCES

Bentley 2001, pp. 482-83, note 58;

Butlin 2002, p. 71and reproduced p. 72;
Gourlay, passim.

CATALOGUE NOTE

This watercolor of the fates carrying the thread of life was never engraved by Schiavonetti and was
completely unknown until its discovery in 2001. Butlin has related the subject to a line on page 18 of The
Grave, "Our Time Is Fix'd, and All Our Days Are Number'd," but the rest of the passage deals with suicide
and the prohibitions against it. Although Blake was quite free in his interpretation of Blair's poem, plucking
that one line out of context goes rather far, even for him. However, even if the exact line does not fit, the
theme of the unexpectedness of death is clear.

Blake's use of such undiluted classical imagery is unusual in the context of the other designs. He does
depict the fates cutting the thread of life in a few illustrations for Night Thoughts but the compositions are
quite different. The extraordinary ring of figures circling the moon in Our Time Is Fix'd seems to have little
precedent. There is some kinship with the ghosts circling the moon in The Gambols of Ghosts, but in its
absence of setting Our Time Is Fix'd is unique among Blake's illustrations to The Grave.

LOT 18

WILLIAM BLAKE
LONDON 1757 - 1827

CHRIST DESCENDING INTO THE GRAVE

(THE DESCENT OF CHRIST INTO THE GRAVE)

350,000—550,000 USD
Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 329,600 USD

MEASUREMENTS

measurements note
230 by 124 mm.; 9 1/16 by 4 7/8 in.

DESCRIPTION

pen and black ink and watercolor over traces of pencil

CATALOGUE NOTE

This watercolor may be seen in relation the very first lines of the poem in which the narrator introduces
himself and defines his role as a guide through the landscape of the Grave.

Whilst some affect the sun, and some the shade,

Some flee the city, some the hermitage;
Their aims as various as the roads they take
In journeying through life; the task be mine
To paint the gloomy horrors of the tomb;
Th� appointed place of rendezvous, where all
These trav�llers meet. Thy succours I implore,
Eternal King! whose potent arm sustains
The keys of hell and death. The Grave, dread thing! (p.1)

Christ, as Blake depicts him, also is a guide, leading us into the grave and into The Grave. He is shown
descending a staircase into flames with the keys to hell and to death in his hands. This is not the traditional
rendering of Christ descending into hell, holding the banner of the resurrection, but Christ as described in
Revelations I:18: I am living for ever and ever, and have the keys of death and hell.1 He is both savior and
guide, who protects the author on his journey � a frightening journey describing the gloomy horrors of the
grave. In Blake�s personal iconography He is also the divine imagination, inspiring Blair and Blake as he
inspired John the Evangelist to write Revelations.2

This is not the angry, judging Christ but a benign, restrained figure. But despite the well-muscled body,
there is a distinctly feminine quality to the figure, due to the wide-eyed rather pretty face, and the long,
flowing robe that is tied just below his breast. Blake was apparently inspired by Revelations for this robe:
�clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle (Revelations I:13),
and he used it frequently in portraying Christ.

There are a number of similar representations in a series of watercolors illustrating the Bible that he made
for his patron Thomas Butts. Typical works include Christ Girding Himself with Strength (Butlin 464, pl.
551), The Hymn of Christ and the Apostles (Butlin 490, pl. 546) and The Magdalen at the Sepulchre
(Butlin 504, pl. 604).

A drawing in the British Museum (Butlin 621recto, pl. 854), has often been described as a sketch for this
composition, but the subject seems to be quite different. In the London drawing Christ opens his cloak with
one hand and shows the other palm outward, displaying His stigmata, rather than carrying the keys of hell
and death, as in this illustration to The Grave.

1 Essick and Paley, p.56.

2 Ibid.

LOT 19

WILLIAM BLAKE
LONDON 1757 - 1827

'FRIENDSHIP'

180,000—260,000 USD
Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 318,400 USD

MEASUREMENTS

measurements note
238 by 176 mm.; 9 3/8 by 6 15/16 in.

DESCRIPTION

inscribed in pencil on the mount below Friendship and on the verso of the mount upper right Not.

pen and black ink and watercolor over pencil

LITERATURE AND REFERENCES

Bentley 2001, pp. 482-83, note 58;

Butlin 2002, p. 71 and reproduced p. 70;
Gourlay, passim.

CATALOGUE NOTE

This watercolor is one of the simplest and most tender designs that Blake made for Blair�s Grave.
Although the title was listed in Cromek's first prospectus, the image was not used in the final publication.
The subject derives from verses on pages 4-5 of the poem.

Invidious Grave! how dost thou rend in sunder

Whom love has knit, and sympathy made one!
A tie more stubborn far than nature�s band.
Friendship! mysterious cement of the soul!
Sweet�ner of life! and solder of society!
I owe thee much.

As is often the case, Blake�s interpretation diverges greatly from Blair�s. The two men are dressed as
travelers, or possibly pilgrims, wearing wide-brimmed hats and tunics. The bearded man points the way
forward to his companion, whose shorter tunic may indicate he is younger. The fact that they are barefoot
suggests they are on holy ground (though many of Blake�s characters are similarly without shoes), and
the composition has overtones of the Apostles on the road to Emmaus. The men's hands barely touch, but
they are clearly bound together and headed toward the heavenly Jerusalem. Thus while Blair dwells how
death ends friendship, Blake indicates that it endures beyond the grave.

Although we have found no preliminary drawing for Friendship, it is a theme Blake had treated before. An
entire section of Edward Young�s The Complaint, and the Consolation; or, Night Thoughts, for which
Blake provided illustrations, is devoted to the subject. On the title-page of Night the Second: On Time,
Death, and Friendship two young men in classical robes reach across a giant figure of time and clasp each
other's hand. Later in the same chapter, on page 30, Blake shows two shepherds, completely nude, standing
by their flock talking; one is bearded and one clean shaven, the former carrying a crook. The text reads:

Know�st thou, Lorenzo! What a Friend contains?

As Bees mixt Nectar drawn from fragrant Flow�rs,
So Men from FRIENDSHIP, Wisdom and Delight;
Twins ty�d by Nature, if they part they die.

This is the sentiment that Blake illustrates in Friendship. In the watercolor he has distilled the meaning to
its essence, with no extraneous details. Even the plants beside the road the travelers walk radiate hope and
renewal

LOT 20

ENGLISH SCHOOL, C. 1821

DRAWINGS PORTFOLIO

1,000—1,500 USD
Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 5,040 USD

MEASUREMENTS

N/A

DESCRIPTION

N/A

CATALOGUE NOTE

A contemporary wallet-style straight-grained red morocco portfolio, lined with red glazed paper
watermarked Beilby & Knotts 1821, covers with simple double blind ruled border, the catch for the clasp
gilt lettered: DESIGNS FOR BLAIR'S GRAVE, short tears at catch edges, edges and other extremities
quite rubbed, with minor loss