CenSAMM
  • About
  • Blog
  • News & Events
  • Conferences
  • Resources
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Blog

Review: William Blake, Tate Britain

Category: Reviews

Tagged: Blake

November 19, 2019


William Blake is the largest and most important exhibition on the artist for a generation. It presents a comprehensive account of Blake’s work as an artist, showing over 300 works from throughout his career, and in multiple media – paintings, watercolours, drawings, commercial engravings and Blake’s various innovative forms of printmaking. Among the exhibits are rarely seen items from private collections, and loans from the US and Australia, so this will be a once in a lifetime opportunity to see many of the items on display.

Its focus is emphatically art historical, attending to matters such as techniques, materials, prices paid, patrons, and circumstances of display. This approach is much needed, as it situates Blake in the art world of his time, demonstrating that, while not a central figure in the art world of his time, nor was he an outsider to that sphere as he has often been presented to be.

Interpretation of the symbolism of Blake’s images is avoided, and instead captions focus on matters such as bindings, frames, and materials. Occasionally, the curators allude to scholarly debate about the meanings of Blake’s works, but do not get bogged down in unpacking these discussions. Thus, while the exhibition includes plenty of works that will be of interest to CenSAMM readers, there is little by way of interpretation that illuminates Blake’s apocalypticism. Visitors are instead left to draw their own conclusions on Blake’s symbolism. This post, then, is less a review in the conventional sense, and more something a visitors’ guide to apocalyptic and millenarian works in the exhibition.

The Good Farmer, Probably the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares -
William Blake - c1780-5 Photo © Tate CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 (Unported)

The first room focuses on the period of and after Blake’s training at the Royal Academy Schools, which he entered in 1779. From this early stage in his career, there is evidence of Blake’s interest in apocalyptic subjects. The drawing known as The Good Farmer, Probably the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares (c.1780–5, Tate) is one of a group of seven interrelated compositions that relate to Jesus’ parables on the theme of harvest in which the fruitfulness or otherwise of seed sown is a metaphor for the spiritual condition of mankind: some flourish whilst others wilt or are like weeds. In the Tate drawing, Jesus stands in front of a field of grain in the centre foreground, flanked by supplicant figures. Whatever the exact biblical source(s) of this drawing and related compositions (not exhibited), as a group they represent sustained reflection on apocalyptic themes of harvest and destruction, resonating with millenarian themes of war and destruction in other works of the period by the artist, such as his Pestilence and War drawings (c.1779–1805). One of the later Pestilence drawings is shown in the next room (c.1795–1800, Bristol Museums & Art Gallery). Such subjects can be seen as Blake’s response to turbulent contemporaneous events such as the American Revolutionary War (1775–83) and the Gordon Riots (1780), and later the French Revolution (1789–99).

The second room explores Blake as a printmaker, both as a commercial engraver, and as a maker of illuminated books, with a particular focus on the 1790s. Examples of many of Blake’s prophetic books from this period are displayed here, as well as what is probably his best-known work in this medium Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1789, 1794). There is plenty to interest CenSAMM readers here, including copies of America (1793) and Europe (1794), which present the American and French Revolutions as augurs of the apocalypse.

Next, the exhibition considers Blake’s patrons. Notable here is the civil servant Thomas Butts, who purchased some 200 works from Blake, including two series of biblical designs – in tempera and watercolour. The watercolour series includes some of Blake’s best-known apocalyptic images, including ten subjects from Revelation, two of which are exhibited here: The Great Dragon and the Beast from the Sea (c.1803–5, National Gallery of Art) and The Number of the Beast is 666 (c.1805, The Rosenbach). This reunion of two of the four dispersed Red Dragon group is particularly striking. Also of interest here is a series of six watercolours illustrating John Milton’s On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity (1809, The Whitworth), painted for Revd Joseph Thomas, in which the birth of Christ results in the overthrow of pagan deities. These unusual nativity images, which show the downfall of the pagan deities, present the birth of Christ as an apocalyptic event.

A final highlight in the patrons section is A Vision of the Last Judgement (c.1808, Petworth House), painted for Elizabeth Ilive, Countess Egremont. This watercolour is one of a number of related compositions by Blake that culminated in a lost monumental painting that he worked on in the final two decades of his life. Blake also wrote two explanations of the subject – one for the Petworth picture (1808), and a longer version for the lost painting (c.1810). The latter document in particular is important for understanding Blake’s theory of art and apocalyptic vision. In it, he explains: ‘whenever any Individual Rejects Error & Embraces Truth a Last Judgment passes upon that Individual.’ This statement encapsulates the central tenet of Blake’s personal vision: in all things, we should strive to reject error and embrace truth, and to do so is apocalyptic. The Last Judgement is not something that happens (only) at the end of time; it is constantly occurring when an individual rejects error and embraces truth. Blake also tells us how he hopes to facilitate that process for his audience through his art; in the same document he writes:

If the Spectator could Enter into these Images in his Imagination … then would he arise from his Grave then would he meet the Lord in the Air & then he would be happy

In other words, Blake wants his images to engender a last judgement for the viewer.

Room 4 explores the decade from 1805, which was a difficult period for Blake. A highlight here is a group of watercolour designs for Robert Blair’s The Grave, reuniting works that were dispersed in 2006. These designs were commissioned by the publisher Robert Cromek in 1805 for Blair’s poem on death and the afterlife. Blake expected to have the work of engraving the plates for publication, as well as creating the designs, but Cromek was not happy with the trial plate that Blake produced (the only surviving print of which is shown here) and instead engaged the fashionable printmaker Luigi Schiavonetti to engrave Blake’s design, much to the artist’s chagrin. Among the watercolours are Christ Descending Into the Grave (c.1805–7, private collection), which became the frontispiece to Cromek’s edition. Several copies of the book, opened to different plates, are also shown here; of particular interest here is The Day of Judgement, which is the first version of the composition that Blake subsequently developed in A Vision of the Last Judgement seen in the previous room.

The Day of Judgment
Luigi Schiavonetti, The Day of Judgment, 1808, published 1813, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

This part of the exhibition also includes two innovative curatorial devices to evoke the contexts in which Blake himself exhibited and hoped to exhibit his work. First, there is a reconstruction of Blake’s disastrous one-man show of 1809 in a space that evokes the sort of eighteenth-century domestic interior in which it took place. Beyond, there are evocations of Blake’s unrealised ambitions to paint on a grand scale, via projections and a mock-up photograph of one of the biblical watercolours as an altarpiece in Blake’s family church, St James’ Piccadilly.

Save stamina for the final room, because it is particularly rich in works that will be of interest to CenSAMM readers. In the final years of his life (he died in 1827), in large part thanks to the support of the younger artist John Linnell, Blake pursued several ambitious projects. Highlights here include nineteen of Blake’s 102 watercolours for Dante’s Divine Comedy (1824–7), which deal with themes of judgement. The series was dispersed in the twentieth century, and this display reunites a selection from the Tate, The Ashmolean Museum, The British Museum, and the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

From the same years is the Pilgrims’ Progress series (private collection); 27 of the 29 watercolours are shown here. Recording Christian’s journey to the Celestial City, the theme of Bunyan’s narrative resonates with Blake’s own accounts of spiritual journeys in Milton, A Poem (c.1804–11) and Jerusalem, the Emanation of the Giant Albion (1804–c.1820). 25 plates from the rarely-seen Copy B of Jerusalem (private collection) – one of only two fully-coloured copies – are also shown here. As seen above, Blake wanted his art to engender the spiritual progress of his reader-viewer, in order to bring about their individual last judgement. That is the central theme of Jerusalem, which tells the story of the fall and awakening of its protagonist Albion, concluding with union of all living things into one Divine Body.

If you go to this exhibition expecting of a narrative about Blake’s apocalyptic vision you will be disappointed. What you will encounter, however, is a rich display of Blake’s works that engage with that theme, many of which may not be shown again in the UK for decades. Plenty has been written on Blake’s apocalyptic vision elsewhere, so do your homework, and then enjoy this opportunity to encounter some of Blake’s most powerful works.

William Blake is at Tate Britain until 2 February 2020.

Naomi Billingsley is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Manchester. She is the author of The Visionary Art of William Blake: Christianity, Romanticism and the Pictorial Imagination (London, 2018).

A related review of the exhibition by Naomi will appear in Art and Christianity, No. 100 in late 2019.


  • Share Share
  • Print Print

Categories

  • Reviews (9)
  • Discussion (39)
  • Artist in Residence (1)
  • Podcast (23)
  • Conference (31)
  • News (11)
  • Video (8)
  • CDAMM (3)
  • Book (1)
  • Journals (1)

Tags

1381 Uprising, A. L. Morton, Adam and Eve, All things in common, Andrew Perrin, anthropocene, Antichrist, Antisemitism, apocalypse, Apocalyptic language, apocalypticism, Ariel Hessayon, Armageddon, artificial intelligence, Bar, Barack Obama, BASR, Beth Singler, Bible, Bill McGuire, Black Hebrew Israelites, Black Sabbath, Blake, Blake, William, Bob Crow Brigade, Book of Daniel, Brahma Kumaris, Branch Davidians, Britta Gullin, Caligula, capitalism, Cargo Cults, CDAMM, children, Children of God, Christ, Christian, Christian origins, Christian Zionism, Christians United for Israel, Christina Petterson, Christopher Rowland, climate change, climate changs, Conspiracy, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Crossley, James, Damian Cyrocki, Damien Cyrocki, David G. Robertson, Demonology, Denver International Airport, Dictionary, Diggers, DK International, Donald Trump, Doukhobors, Dune,, Dune:, early modern history, Early C, Ecoovie, ecophobia, Encyclopedia, End times, English politics, English Revolution, envi, environmentalism, Erin Roberts, extinction, Family International, Felicja Kozłowska, Four Kingdoms, George W. Bush, Gerrard Winstanley, Gordon Brown, Gospel of Mark, Gospel of Matthew, Gospels, Herb Berg, Hibbert Trust, Historical Jesus, Home Office, Immigration, indigenous, indiginous, Jack Holloway, James Crossley, Jan Maria Kowalski, jason king, JBSAR, Jeremy Corbyn, Jesus, JFK, John Bale, John Ball, John Ball,, John F. Kennedy Jr

Archive

  • May 2025 (1)
  • March 2025 (1)
  • January 2025 (2)
  • October 2024 (1)
  • June 2024 (1)
  • May 2024 (1)
  • March 2024 (1)
  • February 2024 (1)
  • January 2024 (1)
  • November 2023 (2)
  • October 2023 (1)
  • June 2023 (1)
  • May 2023 (4)
  • March 2023 (2)
  • February 2023 (1)
  • January 2023 (2)
  • December 2022 (1)
  • November 2022 (1)
  • October 2022 (1)
  • September 2022 (1)
  • June 2022 (2)
  • May 2022 (2)
  • April 2022 (2)
  • March 2022 (4)
  • February 2022 (4)
  • January 2022 (2)
  • December 2021 (3)
  • November 2021 (1)
  • October 2021 (1)
  • August 2021 (1)
  • July 2021 (2)
  • June 2021 (1)
  • May 2021 (1)
  • April 2021 (3)
  • March 2021 (2)
  • February 2021 (3)
  • January 2021 (1)
  • December 2020 (3)
  • October 2020 (1)
  • September 2020 (3)
  • August 2020 (1)
  • July 2020 (2)
  • June 2020 (1)
  • May 2020 (1)
  • April 2020 (3)
  • March 2020 (4)
  • February 2020 (1)
  • January 2020 (2)
  • December 2019 (2)
  • November 2019 (1)
  • October 2019 (1)
  • September 2019 (2)
  • August 2019 (1)
  • July 2019 (1)
  • June 2019 (1)
  • May 2019 (1)
  • April 2019 (1)
  • March 2019 (2)
  • February 2019 (1)
  • January 2019 (1)
  • December 2018 (1)
CenSAMM

© CenSAMM
All rights reserved.

  • Sitemap
  • Terms of Use
  • Cookies & Privacy Policy
  • Web Design by Chameleon
Contact Details

CenSAMM
Faculty of Divinity
University of Cambridge
West Road
Cambridge
CB3 9BS

Tel:

Explore CenSAMM
  • Conferences
  • Events
  • About
  • Blog
  • Resources
  • Contact
  • The Panacea Charitable Trust
  • The Panacea Museum
  • Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge
Newsletter Signup

Stay up to date with CenSAMM News and Information

  • Homepage
  • About
    • People
      • Prof. James Crossley
    • The Panacea Museum
    • The Panacea Charitable Trust
    • MF Norwegian School of Theology
    • FAQs
  • Blog
  • News & Events
  • Conferences
    • Anglo-Israelism and the British Imperial Imagination
    • Apocalyptic Nostalgia? Cold War Imagery in Popular Culture
    • The Next Quest for the Historical Jesus
    • The Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements Conference 2022
    • The Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements Conference 2021
    • Apocalypse and Utopia, 1914-1945
    • Video Games and Religion: Apocalypse and Utopia
    • Apocalypticism and Millenarian Movements in the Ancient World
    • Virtual Symposium: The Cold War and the End Times
    • The Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements Conference 2020
    • The Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements Conference 2019
    • Natural Disasters and the Apocalypse (1500 to Present) Sept 13, 2018
    • Apocalypse in Art: The Creative Unveiling (June 28 and 29, 2018)
      • Apocalypse in Art: The Creative Unveiling (June 2018) media archive
    • AI and Apocalypse (April 5 and 6, 2018)
      • AI and Apocalypse conference (April 2018) media archive
    • Archive 2017
  • Resources
    • Critical Dictionary of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements (CDAMM)
    • Online resources (open-access videos and podcasts)
      • Definitions and General Themes
      • Biblical, early Christian, and early Jewish millenarian and apocalyptic movements
        • Apocalypticism and related ideas in the Bible, early Judaism and early Christianity
        • Jesus and the Gospels
        • Paul
        • Book of Revelation
        • Gnosticism
      • Medieval
      • Reformation, early modern and nineteenth century
      • Twentieth century and contemporary
        • Waco, David Koresh and the Branch Davidians
      • Culture
      • AI
      • Environmental issues
    • Profiles of Millenarian & Apocalyptic Movements
      • Brahma Kumaris
      • Branch Davidians
      • Christian Zionism
      • Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
      • Environmental Millenarianism
      • ISIS
      • Neturei Karta
      • Peoples Temple
      • Plymouth Brethren Christian Church
      • Rastafari
      • Sadrist Movement
      • Standing Rock Sioux
      • Strauss-Howe Generational Theory
      • Survivalists
      • Technological Millenarianism
    • CenSAMM Videos on Apocalypticism and Millenarianism
    • CenSAMM Interviews, Roundtables, and Seminars
    • Movies & Books
  • Contact

Share

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email
Copy