Artworks

A list of William Blake's artworks brings together objects that ask to be approached in different ways. A drawing can be examined as an individual sheet. A page from an illuminated book belongs to a particular copy, with its own colouring and arrangement. An engraving may preserve a design made during Blake's life in an impression printed long afterwards. Before choosing what to look at, it helps to know what kind of work a title represents. ^[1][2][3]

This guide offers routes through selected paintings, drawings, printed pictures and books. Some routes follow a material, others a subject or a period of activity. They overlap because Blake's inventions travelled: a subject could occupy a drawing, a painted version and a copperplate without those objects becoming interchangeable. The most useful list therefore gives each encounter a little room. A familiar name is an invitation to discover which object, version or sequence stands behind it. ^[1][2][4]

What counts as one artwork?

Start with the difference between a design and an object. A design is a composition that can be recognised across related versions. An object is the particular sheet, panel or book in front of us. Tate's Dante and Virgil Penetrating the Forest, accession N03351, is an individual drawing made with graphite, ink and watercolour. Its figures and trees belong to Blake's much larger Dante undertaking, but the catalogue entry describes this sheet, with its own inscriptions, dimensions and history. ^[1]

A printed design introduces another layer. The matrix is the surface from which printing takes place; an impression is an individual result on paper. Different impressions can carry the same central composition while differing in ink, colouring, paper or printed state. Tate's account of the Job engravings distinguishes the copperplates, early working proofs, issued sets and later printing. These are connected parts of one project's history, each requiring its own description. ^[3]

An illuminated book adds the assembled copy. The William Blake Archive's editors explain that Songs of Innocence and of Experience, copy E, was prepared for Thomas Butts in 1806 using impressions largely printed in 1789 and 1794. Its copy letter identifies a particular book, whose material history extends across those years. It does not mean that the reader has moved to a different literary work whenever the letter changes. ^[2]

Counting also depends on what is being counted. The editors describe copy E as having fifty-four impressions, although it originally lacked The Clod & the Pebble and included Laughing Song twice. A later owner supplied a posthumously printed impression of the missing poem. A total of impressions consequently need not equal a total of different designs or poems. The unit matters as much as the number. ^[2]

That is why this guide does not attach one grand total to everything Blake made. A count of compositions would answer a different question from a count of surviving sheets, book copies or printed editions. For a reader exploring the art, a smaller, clearly described group is often more revealing. It allows us to follow an invention across objects while retaining the differences that make each worth looking at.

Reading a title, a date and a catalogue number

The short line beneath a reproduction can contain several histories. Take Newton. Tate's impression bears an inscription dated 1795, while its paper has an 1804 watermark. The museum distinguishes the composition's earlier origin from the later sheet, cataloguing it as 1795 to about 1805. Reading only the date within the image would conceal an essential part of the object's making. ^[4]

Dates can therefore refer to invention, printing, finishing or publication. They may also record a later impression from an existing plate. These distinctions become useful when two reputable collection entries seem to disagree. Before deciding that one must be mistaken, check whether they describe the same physical object and the same stage of its history. The date accompanying an image is most informative when the catalogue tells us what happened then. ^[3][4]

Numbers need the same attention. N03351 identifies the Tate drawing; its place as the second design in Blake's Dante sequence describes a relationship within the project. The canto and line identify the passage illustrated. A museum accession, a sequence number and a literary locator can all appear in one entry, serving different purposes. Keeping them separate makes it easier to find an object again and compare it with another representation of the episode. ^[1]

An artist's name also needs a verb. The National Gallery of Victoria's historical Blake selection includes The Grave with etchings by Louis Schiavonetti after Blake. Here Blake supplied the designs and another artist made the printed plates. The pictures belong to the study of Blake's art, while the maker of the published prints remains visible. A useful catalogue lets invention and execution be shared without losing track of either contribution. ^[6]

Routes through periods of work

For an early point of entry, Blake's prospectus of 10 October 1793 offers a particularly clear view of his public activity. Historical engravings stand beside illuminated prophecies, poems and small books of engravings. Reading the illuminated books in relation to this offering reveals an artist presenting several forms of invention at once. The list's categories and prices give the books a place among objects that could be bought from his Lambeth address. ^[5]

The colour-printed pictures associated with the mid-1790s offer another route. Newton is a useful starting point because its combination of printing, ink and watercolour makes the finished sheet difficult to reduce to a single familiar category. Follow it into the paintings guide when the surface and the role of colour attract your attention, or into prints when the relationship between a repeatable design and an individual impression becomes the central question. ^[4]

The 1809 exhibition provides a different grouping. Its catalogue gathered biblical subjects, British and literary history, spiritual forms of Nelson and Pitt, and pictures Blake identified as experiments. It ended with a Jane Shore drawing that he described as more than thirty years old, using it to argue for continuity between his youthful and mature achievement. This grouping belongs to an occasion: it shows what Blake brought forward together, including earlier work he wanted his audience to reconsider. ^[7]

For the later work, the Job illustrations and the Dante designs make a rewarding pair of entrances. They show the different demands of a published engraved sequence and a large undertaking left unfinished. Following them by project keeps the individual images within a developing whole. Following them by object allows a particular drawing or impression to become the focus. ^[1][3][6]

A period grouping is useful as a starting arrangement, but an object can cross its boundaries. The dates attached to Newton already show why an image associated with the 1790s can also preserve work done in the following decade. Chronology becomes richer when it follows renewed attention to an invention as well as the appearance of something new. ^[4]

Choosing by material

If you want to begin with a painted object, The Ghost of a Flea gives a sharply defined example. Tate catalogues it as tempera and gold on mahogany, about 1819–20, with a support measuring 214 by 162 millimetres. Those dimensions restore an intimacy easily lost when a reproduction fills a screen. The title names the subject; the material and size introduce the particular physical thing Blake made. ^[8]

The word painting consequently opens onto more than one kind of object. Compare that mahogany panel with Tate's Newton, a colour print finished with ink and watercolour on paper. Both reward attention to coloured surfaces, while their supports and processes give that colour a different material setting. Reading the medium before interpreting the image gives those differences a chance to shape the encounter. ^[4][8]

For drawings, return to the Forest sheet. Fine lines describe branching trees across large areas of pale paper, while darker ink and washes gather around the way taken by Dante and Virgil. Tate calls the drawing unfinished. Its mixture of articulated and lightly indicated passages allows a reader to see how much a composition can establish before every part receives an equal degree of finish. ^[1]

This is also a useful warning against making the medium labels too rigid. A drawing can contain substantial watercolour; a printed sheet can receive extensive work with a brush or pen. The label provides a precise material description without exhausting what the eye will find. Follow the etchings and engravings guides when you want to understand the marks and matrices more closely, then return to the object to see how those processes contribute to its effect. ^[1][3][4]

The illuminated books require a further adjustment of attention. A single page can be compelling on its own, but a particular copy preserves a succession of encounters. The Archive's account of Songs copy E includes older impressions revisited with colour and pen before the book was sold. The book brings together the repeatability of print and the history of a particular assembly. Reading Songs of Innocence and of Experience as a book means remaining alert to both. ^[2]

Choosing by subject and sequence

A subject route can begin with a source and an episode. Biblical works can be approached through Blake's treatment of a named passage, a recurring figure or a sustained narrative. The Job suite offers the last of these: twenty-one subjects accompanied by a title plate. Calling it twenty-two plates and calling it twenty-one illustrations can both be accurate, provided the title is accounted for. The count describes the suite's structure. ^[3]

Within an individual Job engraving, the words around the central picture are part of that structure too. In Job and His Family, the family occupies a framed scene beneath hanging instruments, while inscriptions fill the surrounding space. Tate's catalogue identifies passages drawn from several biblical books. A reproduction cropped to the central scene would give a materially reduced account of the artwork. For this series, reading the margin belongs to looking at the picture. ^[3]

Dante offers a journey through another kind of source. The Forest drawing illustrates Inferno II, lines 139–42, as Virgil leads Dante onwards. Tate identifies it as the second design in the series. That position makes the image an early step in a much longer movement through the poem. Someone drawn to the two figures can begin with this encounter, then follow the sequence to see how changes of setting and companionship develop its concerns. ^[1]

The National Gallery of Victoria's historical selection makes the difference between project and holding especially clear. Its Dante section comprises thirty-six watercolours from the larger group of 102 and also includes the seven engravings. These numbers describe different things: the museum's selection of drawings, the larger drawn sequence and the compositions taken into copper. They do not add up to a single homogeneous set of objects. ^[6]

Literary subjects can also be approached through Blake's own comments on them. His 1809 catalogue places the Canterbury Pilgrims beside the Bard from Gray and Satan Calling Up His Legions from Milton. Each has a different source and a different relation to the picture's making. A literary grouping becomes most rewarding when it moves beyond the author's name to ask which episode Blake chose, what his description emphasises and how the resulting image directs attention. ^[7]

Two lists Blake made for his audience

Blake's own lists reveal how strongly a selection depends on its occasion. The 1793 prospectus contains ten numbered products offered for sale. Its first two are historical engravings, Job and Edward and Elinor. They precede works described as illuminated printing and two small books of engravings. This order prevents the later fame of the illuminated books from obscuring the range Blake presented to prospective buyers. ^[5]

The early Job entry also needs to remain distinct from the much later engraved suite. The repeated subject name does not identify the same publication. In a list spanning Blake's career, the date, format and surrounding entries are essential clues. They place the 1793 offer within its own commercial moment. ^[3][5]

The prospectus combines description with persuasion. Blake promotes a method uniting painter and poet, gives formats and prices, praises the paper and announces that no subscriptions are required. His promise of economy belongs to that appeal for an audience. The document is evidence of what he offered and how he wished it to be valued; it cannot determine the contents or printing date of every book that survives today. ^[5]

The Descriptive Catalogue of 1809 has sixteen numbered exhibits. Its extended accounts of some pictures stand alongside much shorter entries for drawings. Blake describes works as experimental, discusses the preservation or loss of their outlines and argues for the standing of his art. The catalogue is therefore both a guide to an exhibition and an intervention in disputes over what a picture should be. Its uneven emphasis tells us something about the case he wanted to make. ^[7]

The sale conditions reveal a practical connection between two forms of work. The painting of the Canterbury Pilgrims was to remain with Blake for twelve months so that he could engrave it before delivery to a buyer. The painting and its proposed print share an invention while occupying different places in the transaction. Even an exhibition list can point beyond the exhibited object to a further act of making. ^[7]

Blake's terminology also preserves his ambitions. He calls works frescoes and imagines some drawings enlarged for church altars. His assertions about recovered ancient methods and the history of painting are part of his argument. They help us understand the exhibition he wanted viewers to encounter, but his proposed monumental settings do not establish a corresponding body of completed architectural or sculptural commissions. The catalogue records aspiration as well as exhibited work. ^[7]

Finding your first group of works

Choose an entrance that fits the attention you want to give. For a short encounter with one concentrated object, begin with The Ghost of a Flea and keep its small scale in mind. For the relation between print and painted surface, begin with Newton. For an invention still visibly developing, spend time with Dante and Virgil Penetrating the Forest. The material description helps establish a different pace of looking for each. ^[1][4][8]

If you prefer to follow a sequence, choose Job or Dante and keep the individual image beside its place in the whole. If words and images together are the attraction, begin with Songs, remembering that the named copy has its own history. These approaches ask for different kinds of comparison: one sheet against another, one scene against the next, or one assembled book against another copy. ^[1][2][3]

Return from the list to an object with a specific question. Which date belongs to this sheet? Is the title naming a whole book or a single image? Does the reproduction include its margins? Who designed the composition, and who made the plate? With those questions in view, a catalogue becomes a route into Blake's art: each precise distinction gives the next act of looking more to discover.