William Blake

Robert Cromek;
by inheritance to his widow;
Thomas Sivright;
his sale, Edinburgh, C.B. Tait, 10 February 1836, lot 1835 (part of lot);
possibly John Stannard (1795-1881);
by family descent until with Caladonia Books, Glasgow, by 2001;
sale, New York, Sotheby's, 2 May 2006, lot 13

Engraved:

by L. Schiavonetti, for Cromek's The Grave (1808)

The drawing and support are in excellent condition. Primary support: Fine, smooth surfaced (hot-pressed), light weight, white wove paper, laid down overall to the mount and partially detached at the lower right corner. Design layer: Traces of graphite under drawing. Subtle pale gray watercolor washes of slightly differing tonalities and intensities, some incorporating a yellow wash. The paper reserves are utilized for highlights. Contours and details drawn over the watercolor in quill pen and black ink. Condition: Minor accretion or ink spot at the top center of the design area. A minor, fox-like stain is present at the lower left in the beard of the counseller in the foreground, and in the center of the gown of the second figure, the king. The colors are vibrant and are in good tonal balance. There is no discoloration of the support. Mount: Off white (now discolored) smooth surfaced, wove paper pasteboard composed of three sheets of paper laminated together by the artist or the colorman-supplier. A decorative wash border and ink lines surround the primary support. Minor surface dirt and grime are present in the margins from handling. A light colored stain is present in the top border at the center, in the lower border at the left, and minor accretions or fly specks are present in the decorative border at the upper right. A small hole is present in the back layer of paper.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Blake created this powerful image in connection with his commission by Robert Cromek to provide illustrations to Blair’s celebrated poem The Grave (see lot 108 for more information on this important project).

Executed in an almost monochromatic range of grays and greens, Blake successfully captures the absolute stillness of the tomb. The watercolor speaks generally of the concept of death as the great leveller and although it does not illustrate a specific verse from the poem, in the finalised publication, Cromek positioned the engraved version of the image opposite the following lines:

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.

The watercolor is closely related to a pen and wash drawing that Blake made as a young man in the early 1780s (fig. 1).¹ However, whereas in that work, the figures are clearly corpses lying on a battlefield, here, they are firmly enclosed within a tomb and take the form of medieval sculpture. Even the knight’s crossed legs suggest limbs modelled in stone rather than flesh. The figures are rigidly aligned, holding their identifying attributes – the counsellor’s scroll, the king’s sceptre, 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 approach to the subject 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 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.

1. M. Butlin, The Paintings and Drawings of William Blake, London 1981, pp. 51-55, no. 136