231. The Accusers of Theft, Adultery, and Murder. [British Museum. Colour-printed. 232. A coloured version of the design partially engraved (from a steel plate) on p. 256, Vol. I.: the middle figure in dark plate-armour. Very grand. An Aged Man addressing a Multitude. [British Museum.] Colourprinted. : He stands under a tree, speaking in command or exhortation the listeners seem to be despondent, as under some national calamity. Good, without extravagance of form or colour. Accurately and fully executed in strong, bright tints. 233. Misfortune and Happiness (?). [British Museum.] Colour-printed. A mourning woman crouches under a drooping, blasted tree-trunk. In front of her stands a beautiful naked young woman, tossing and kissing her naked child; a charmingly designed group. A little red bird flying to the right, relieved upon a background of densest cloud, deserves notice for the daringly simple way in which it is executed. Richly coloured in masses, with little or no subsequent re-touching. LIST No. 2. UNCOLOURED WORKS, Including Drawings in Indian Ink, or with merely slight Washes of Colour. * Means considerable size. The Works not otherwise defined are known or assumed to be SECTION A.-DATED WORKS. ARRANGED IN ORDER OF DATE. 1. 1778 (?)-Sketch for the 'Jane Shore.' [Mrs. Alex. Gilchrist.] Neat and rather ordinary in style, not quite unlike Retzsch, but with fair merit on inspection. The spectators of Jane's penance are good in expression. See No. 1, List 1. 2. Circa 1791 (?).-A Naked Man, touching a Ram as he recedes. [Mr. Harvey.] Daringly designed. At the back Blake has written, in title-page form, The Bible of Hell, in Nocturnal Visions collected. Vol. I. Lambeth.' This will be understood by the readers of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.' 3. 1793-Ugolino. [Mr. Harvey.] 4. In outline; a preparation for the design in the 'Gates of Paradise.' 1793.-A Visionary Head (?). [Mr. Harvey.] Apparently a man of Blake's own time. On the back of the preceding. 5. 1794.-The Death of Ezekiel's Wife. [Mr. Palgrave.] Indian ink. The original design for the very finished plate referred to on pp. 136-7, Vol. I. The prophet has a fine bearded head, different in type from that assigned by Blake to Job. There are three crouching friends, one of them a A good average specimen. 6. woman. 1796 (?).—*Job and his Friends-' What is man that Thou shouldst try him every moment?' [Mr. Palgrave.] Indian ink. The plate from this design is described on p. 137, Vol. I. In outline; rather empty in manner. The friends are somewhat deficient in distinctive character. 7. 1797.-Designs in an unpublished Prophetic Book, named 'Vala, or the Death and Judgment of the Ancient Man: a Dream of Nine Nights; by William Blake.' [Mr. Linnell.] 8. There are a good number of designs, some thirty or forty, interspersed through this MS. as in the printed Prophetic Books,' and of the same general character; but, whether through the want of the vigorous effects obtained in the engraving process, or through real inferiority, they fall short of the printed ones in impressiveness. A design of a hooded snake with a woman's face is curious. 1800. The Head-piece of 'Little Tom the Sailor.' [Mr. Harvey.] Done in a neat unimpulsive style, not nearly so effective as in the engraving. 9. 1802 (?)-Sketch for a Frontispiece to Young's Night Thoughts' (?). [Mr. Harvey.] Pencil outline, partly gone over with ink. A figure which seems to be that of a poet in contemplation, and which is not unlike the type adopted for the figure of Young in the illustrated Night Thoughts,' appears at the foot of the composition; the chariot of the sun at the summit, and some night-like symbols next below. Curious. 10. 1802.-Design for Hayley's 'Ballad of the Eagle.' [Mr. Harvey.] On the back of the preceding; this is unfortunately cut in half lengthways. It is handled with considerable care, and differs throughout in the details from the engraved design, though there is no mistaking the connexion of the two. 11. 1805 (?).—A Soul at the Door of Paradise (?). [Mr. Palgrave.] Indian ink. Slight in execution and ordinary in design; probably intended for Blair's 'Grave.' The soul is a female figure, and two female angels stand within the door. 12. 13. 1805.-The Old Man at Death's Door. [Mr. Palgrave.] A preparatory design for the subject 1805.-The Death of a Voluptuary. [Mr. Palgrave.] Indian ink. Interesting as being a close parallel in design, but not in character, to that of The Soul hovering over the Body,' engraved in the Grave; ' not at all like the engraved Death of the Strong Wicked Man.' The dead voluptuary is crowned with vine-leaves; his soul, a female figure expressive of coarse passions, contemplates him with repulsion. Scratchy and rather ugly in execution. 14. 1805.-A young Man entering Death's Door. [Mr. Harvey.] Indian ink. Probably a preparatory version of The Soul exploring the Recesses of the Grave.' 15. 1805.-A Design originally intended for Blair's Grave The Soul exploring the Recesses of the Grave (?).' [Mr. Harvey.] Slightly washed with Indian ink. A figure in an ascending action at the summit of a monument, with another below precipitated into the dark void. Somewhat outré, and not the same composition as in the engraving. 16. 1805.-The Death of the Strong Wicked Man-Blair's 'Grave.' [Mr. Harvey.] A very slovenly sketch of the principal figure in the engraved design, along with the Soul, which is here more in the attitude adopted in the engraving for 'The Soul hovering over the Body.' See No. 13, and pp. 221-2. Vol. I. 17. 1805.-The Ascension of the beatified Soul (?). [Mr. Harvey.] On the back of the preceding. The figure assumed to represent the soul is rising into the air from amid several other figures, and about to ascend through a pointed-arched window. Very slight. 18. 1805.-Plague. [Mr. Harvey.] An expressive and reasonably careful sketch for the grand water-colour No. 55, List 1, engraved facing p. 54, Vol. I. 19. Circa 1805 (1).-'Let loose the Dogs of War.' [Mr. Ruskin.] See pp. 54-5. Vol. I. A savage cheering on hounds, who seize a man by the throat. Very fine. Evidently connected with a design engraved in Young's Night Thoughts, though by no means identical with it. (The statement in the Life, p. 55, that Mr. Linnell possesses a water-colour of this drawing, is a mistake). 20. 1806.-*Sketch for the Design of the Dedication to Blair's 'Grave. 21. [Mrs. Alex. Gilchrist.] Rather slight, but the intention fully expressed. A sketch for No. 70, List 1. 1806 (?).—* For the Grave.' [Mr. Palser, Strand.] So marked (not in Blake's handwriting). A sketchy beginning of a very elaborate composition. It may be conjectured to represent the Human Spirit and Life in various conditions. The central point is a number of figures floating round a tree (the Tree of Life, or of the Knowledge of Good and Evil ?); other figures are dragging their fellows along, or being dragged, falling, praying, and so on. Like the following two, interesting and full of matter. 22. 1807.-*The Last Judgment. [Mr. Palser.] A most elaborately planned treatment of the subject, crowded with figures, neatly and distinctly drawn: corresponding (at all events, in various points) with the composition described in the Vision of the Last Judgment,' p. 358, Vol. I.; not like the one in Blair's 'Grave.' Christ appears at the summit; before Him, Adam and Eve, standing; at the bottom, the Devil, triple-headed; to Christ's right, the Just ascending; to His left, the Condemned cast downwards. Marked 'The Original Drawing of Blake's Last Judgment.' Very interesting. 23. 1807.-*The same. [Mr. Palser.] A tracing from a completer version of the preceding design; the whole scheme of the subject being more fully shown, the number of figures still greater. Inscribed by Mr. Tatham: A tracing of an elaborate drawing of his Last Judgment. The original picture was six feet long and about five wide, and was very much spoiled and darkened by over-work; and is one of those alluded to in his Catalogue as being spoiled by the spirits of departed artists, or blotting and blurring demons." This tracing is from some elaborate drawing which has never been engraved.' 24. 1809 or earlier.-The Spirit of Nelson guiding Leviathan, in whose Folds are entangled the Nations of the Earth. [Mr. Evans.] So marked at the back by Blake. Nelson, a naked figure, stands in the middle, with the convolutions of the serpentine Leviathan, and heads and limbs of other human figures therein, rising on each side of him. A hasty and rather slovenly sketch, preparatory, no doubt, to the picture, List 1, No. 79, referred to in the Descriptive Catalogue, p. 119, Vol. II. 25. From 1789 to 1811, at least.-THE BOOK of Sketches and MS. belonging to Mr. Rossetti (see p. 89, Vol. I.) contains a number of sketches more or less slight, first thoughts of designs, &c. ; among them the following. (a) A tiger-like animal frightening a man, who escapes out of window : below, another head of the tiger. Pen and ink. The lower head especially, which has a very actual character, and yet looks as if it might have been a vision,' is capital. (b) Various sketches of a frightful gigantic old man devouring a human being. Perhaps Lucifer with Judas, from Dante's 'Hell'; but not corresponding with the design in the Dante series. (c) 1810 (?).—The Portrait of Blake engraved at p. 172, Vol. I. On the same page is this curious entry: 23 May, 1810, found the Word golden.'-Does the Word' mean ‘the Bible'? (d) A Vision of Fear, and a Vision of Hope. The Fear is two men precipitated through space, in the folds of a serpent: the Hope is most peculiar-merely a view of long human hair from the back of the head, gently waving. (e) 1789, &c. 1793-5.-Several sketches for designs in 'Thel' and other Prophetic Books, and for the Gates of Paradise,' and 'Elohim creating Adam.' Pencil, or Indian ink occasionally. (f) Sketches bearing the following titles or mottoes, or of the subjects specified, corresponding in size, shape, &c. to the sketches for the 'Gates of Paradise,' and probably intended at first to belong to that series: Are glad when they can find the grave.' Engraved on p. 60, Vol. I. 'Everything that grows Holds in perfection but a little moment.'-SHAKESPEARE. An expanded flower, with two elfish habitants, one mounting, the other sinking. (h) A Cupid, or Infant, in a cage. (i) (5) 'A fairy vision Of some gay creatures of the element That in the colours of the rainbow live.' Elves sporting in a rainbow. 'As Daphne was root-bound.'-MILTON. Daphne changing into a laurel-tree. (k) 'Murder.' An assassin approaching a sleeping man in bed. (1) A man about to throw himself off a cliff, held back by the hand of another man. (m) Yet cannot I persuade me thou art dead.'-MILTON. A mother gazing mournfully, yet tranquilly, upon a dead infant in her arms. (n) 'Whose changeless brow ne'er smiles nor frowns.'-THOMSON. A man chained against a rock; appears to personify Fate, as the design corresponds with No. 147, so entitled." 26. 1819 and 1820.-VISIONARY HEADS. [Mr. Linnell.] For some account of these most curious and often most characteristic and excellent heads, see pp. 251, &c. Vol. I. The King Saul,' mentioned on p. 254, is not to be found among them. 32. 1819, 18th Oct.-The Builder of the Pyramids, and the Place where Blake saw this Personage. The head is engraved on p. 252, Vol. I. |