William Blake

Commissioned by Thomas Butts (1757-1845);

Thomas Butts, Jr. of 20 Chester Terrace, Regent Park, London (d. 1862);

Captain Frederick Butts (1833-1905);

with Carfax & Co, London, by 1906;

by whom sold to Walford Graham Robertson (1866-1948),

his sale, London, Christie’s, 22 July 1949, lot 46, bt. Fine Art Society, £462,

with Fine Art Society, London,

where acquired by Sir Oliver Scott (1922-2016);

sale, London, Christie's, 16 June 1970, lot 102;

with Leger Galleries, London,

sold through Quaritch to a private collector, circa 1974-75;

with John Howell Books, San Francisco, by 1978,

with Barry Friedman, Ltd., New York;

by whom sold to another New York based art dealer, circa 1987

acquired by the present owner in circa 1988

W.M. Rossetti, ‘Annotated Catalogue of Blake’s Pictures and Drawings and Engravings’, in A. Gilchrist, Life of William Blake, London 1863, p. 229, no. 170. Revised and reprinted in A. Gilchrist, Life of William Blake, London 1880, p. 242, no. 194;

K. Preston, The Blake Collection of W. Graham Robertson, described by the Collector, London 1952, p. 164, no. 64;

G. Keynes, William Blake’s Illustrations to the Bible, London 1957, p. 46, no. 157a (illustrated);

A. Blunt, The Art of William Blake, London 1959, p. 71

M. Butlin, The Paintings and Drawings of William Blake, New Haven 1981, p. 365, no. 509, pl. 608;

R.N. Essick, 'Blake in the Market Place, 1978-9', Blake: An Illustrated Quarterly, Summer 1980, Fall 1982 & Summer 1990, online edition

London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, The Works of William Blake, 1876, no. 61;

London, Carfax and Co., Frescoes, Prints and Drawings by William Blake, 1906, no. 75;

London, Fine Art Society, Winter Exhibition of Early English Water-Colours and Drawings, 1949, no. 65;

Manchester, Whitworth Art Gallery, William Blake (1757-1827), Bicentenary Celebrations, 1957, no. 6;

London, Leger Galleries, English Watercolours, 1970, no. 20;

Tokyo, Parco Co. Ltd., International Symbolist Exhibition, 1983;

New York, Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, William Blake, 1992

The present work belongs to a group of 135 depictions of biblical subjects that William Blake created for his great patron Thomas Butts (1757-1845). The first record of this monumental undertaking survives in a letter, dated 26 August 1799, in which Blake writes to George Cumberland: ‘As to Myself about whom you are so kindly Interested, I live by a Miracle. I am Painting small Pictures from the Bible... My work pleases my employer, & I have an order for Fifty small pictures at One Guinea each.’¹ For these initial paintings, created between 1799 and 1803, Blake chose to work with tempera on canvas or metal. However, from around 1800, he also began to paint with watercolour on paper and he continued to add to the series in this way until circa 1809. Of this exceptional body of work, about thirty tempera and eighty watercolor images are known today. Amongst these, just over ninety works are held in museums and institutions and the present work is one of only six watercolours from the cycle that remain in private hands. 

Blake’s images of the bible are diverse and extraordinary. They tackle many of the great themes of the Old Testament, the life of Christ and the Apocalypse and the scenes are treated with a mixture of power, emotion and beauty. Religion was of supreme importance to the artist. He is reputed to have experienced heavenly ‘visions’ throughout his life, including for example, seeing a host of angels in a tree on Peckham Rye as an eight year old boy and then in the mid-1770s, while serving as an apprentice at Westminster Abbey, Christ and the Apostles. Naturally, the Bible was one of Blake’s most important sources of subject matter and for him, it was ‘not a simple record of historical events, not even a form of spiritual document, but the embodiment of the whole history of mankind, past, present and future.’²

The present work is thought to date to circa 1800-1803 and it superbly demonstrates Blake's unique artistic vision and personality. His subject is a dramatic one and focuses on the moment during St Paul's journey from Jerusalem to Rome - where he was to face trial - soon after his ship had been wrecked off the coast of Melita (modern day Mljet in the Adriatic Sea). As the survivors, both prisoners and crew, came ashore, the islanders lit a fire to warm them up. Suddenly, out of the flames, there leapt a serpent, which bit Paul on the hand. At first onlookers assumed he was a criminal and that justice was being served: 'No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he has escaped the sea, yet justice does not allow to live'.³ However, when Paul shook off the snake and suffered no ill effects, they began to believe he was a god. This watercolour is closely related to a second work by Blake that shows the event at a slightly later stage (The Red House, Aldeburgh, Suffolk).⁴ 

The importance of Thomas Butts in Blake’s life and career cannot be overestimated. He was a clerk in the office of the Commissary General of Musters and lived in Fitzroy Square, London. He first met Blake in circa 1793 and over the course of the next two decades he became his most loyal and significant patron. His support, both as a friend and financially, afforded Blake a layer of security and under his patronage Blake created some of his most iconic and epic series, including the Bible, Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, Comus, the Ode of the Nativity, L’Allegro ll Penseroso and The Book of Job.

The present watercolour was to remain with Butts's family until the very early 20^th century. Thereafter it entered the collection of Walford Graham Robertson (1866-1948), a painter, playwright and theatrical designer who assembled a magnificent collection of works by Blake. Upon his death, he bequeathed nine works by Blake to the Tate Gallery, while the remaining ninety, including the present watercolour, were sold at Christie’s, London, on 22 July 1949, in an auction that has been described as ‘the greatest Blake sale that has ever taken place.’⁵ Later, the work was owned by Sir Oliver Scott, 3^rd Bt, a distinguished radiobiologist and philanthropist. Finally, it was acquired by the present owner over thirty-five years ago and it has not been seen in public since 1992.

^1. K. Baetjer, British Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art 1578-1875, New Haven 2009, p. 178

^2. P. Ackroyd and M. Butlin, William Blake, London 2000, p. 60

^3. Text taken from the King James Bible

^4. Butlin, op. cit., 1981, p. 365, no. 510

^5. T.P. Greig, 'In the Auction Rooms', The Connoisseur, July - December 1949, p. 65