William Blake London 1757 - 1827

Bentley 2001, pp. 482-83, note 58;
Butlin 2002, p. 71 and reproduced p. 70;
Gourlay, passim.

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.