The William Blake Archive announced at the end of last month five new Works in Preview, which allows visitors to view Blake's art in very high detail.
The William Blake Archive is pleased to present five of Blake's tempera paintings in our Works in Preview wing, an environment that enables viewers to enlarge images many times their true size to clarify details obscured in other reproductions. Works in Preview can be accessed through the drop-down at the upper right of the Archive's home page.
The five works are Adam Naming the Beasts and Eve Naming the Birds, both pen and tempera on canvas, 1810, from Pollok House, Glasgow; The Virgin and Child in Egypt, tempera on canvas, 1810, from the Victoria and Albert Museum; Christ Blessing, tempera on canvas, 1810, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University; and The Virgin and Child ("The Black Madonna"), tempera and gold on panel, c. 1810–1820, Yale Center for British Art. The first four paintings form a group; they are the same size (about 75 x 62 cm.), format (the figures are half length portraits with similar hand positions), and in the same medium and date. All four were painted for Blake's patron Thomas Butts in a medium of Blake's invention, which he called "fresco." Adam Naming the Beasts and The Virgin and Child in Egypt are signed "Fresco by Willm Blake 1810" on the right and left trees respectively, but the signature of the former is partly illegible and entirely illegible in the latter. The Virgin and Child ("The Black Madonna") is inscribed "Freso [sic] 1825 Blake" lower right. Butlin 674 points out that the handling of the tempera medium may suggest an earlier date, probably between 1810 and 1820, and that the inscription may be a later addition, possibly by someone other than Blake. The lettering is not characteristic of Blake's hand. Butlin suggests that the date may be a mistaken restoration or post-dating by Blake.
The five works are Adam Naming the Beasts and Eve Naming the Birds, both pen and tempera on canvas, 1810, from Pollok House, Glasgow; The Virgin and Child in Egypt, tempera on canvas, 1810, from the Victoria and Albert Museum; Christ Blessing, tempera on canvas, 1810, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University; and The Virgin and Child ("The Black Madonna"), tempera and gold on panel, c. 1810–1820, Yale Center for British Art. The first four paintings form a group; they are the same size (about 75 x 62 cm.), format (the figures are half length portraits with similar hand positions), and in the same medium and date. All four were painted for Blake's patron Thomas Butts in a medium of Blake's invention, which he called "fresco." Adam Naming the Beasts and The Virgin and Child in Egypt are signed "Fresco by Willm Blake 1810" on the right and left trees respectively, but the signature of the former is partly illegible and entirely illegible in the latter. The Virgin and Child ("The Black Madonna") is inscribed "Freso [sic] 1825 Blake" lower right. Butlin 674 points out that the handling of the tempera medium may suggest an earlier date, probably between 1810 and 1820, and that the inscription may be a later addition, possibly by someone other than Blake. The lettering is not characteristic of Blake's hand. Butlin suggests that the date may be a mistaken restoration or post-dating by Blake.
The new works can be viewed on the William Blake Archive.