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Songs of Innocence and of Experience, 1794/ca.1825. William Blake (British, 1757–1827). Copy Y ca. 1825. Plate 2: Frontispiece. Relief etchings printed in orange-brown ink, heightened with watercolor and shell gold, with hand-painted decorative borders. Rogers Fund, 1917 (17.10.28).
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More about This Exhibition
"William Blake," the first major exhibition in the United States of works in all media—drawings, paintings, and prints—by the legendary British Romantic artist and poet, was on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from March 29, 2001 through June 24, 2001. More than 175 works, including selections from all of Blake's illuminated books, for which he is most widely known, were on view. A generation after the 1978 Tate Gallery (London) retrospective that established Blake's significance as a visual artist, "William Blake" was the first exhibition ever to explore the artist's work within the context of the social, economic, and political upheavals of his times.
The exhibition was supported by The Isaacson-Draper Foundation.
The exhibition was organized by Tate Britain.
More about William Blake
More about the Objects on View
William Blake's "Songs"
Highlights of the Exhibition
Educational Programs
Audio Tour and Electronic Resources
Exhibition Publication
Exhibition Organizers and Credits
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More about William Blake
William Blake was born in London in 1757 into a working-class family (his father was a hosier) with strong nonconformist religious beliefs, and was trained as a commercial engraver. Assisted by Catherine Boucher—a grocer's daughter whom he married in 1782—Blake produced a remarkable series of color-printed books using his relief etching process. William Blake never traveled outside of Britain and remained poor all of his life. Aside from a brief period on the southern coast of England (where he worked for the poet William Hayley in Eartham from 1800 to 1803), he spent his entire life in London. At his death in 1827, Blake was mourned by a small group of intimate associates, some of them followers who called themselves the "Ancients"; today, he is celebrated as one of the most original and important artists and poets of the Romantic era.
"William Blake, perhaps best known as one of the greatest poets in the English language, was also one of the most imaginative visual artists in Europe in his time," said Philippe de Montebello, director of the Metropolitan Museum. "The scope of this exhibition enables us to more fully appreciate the creative legacy of this remarkable man."
View a chronology of William Blake's life.
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More about the Objects on View
"William Blake" was arranged thematically, beginning with an exploration of the artist's lifelong engagement with medieval art. Among the highlights of this section were the vivid early studies of tombs in Westminster Abbey, richly colored in watercolor and gold, the monumental engraving of Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims (ca. 1820, Yale Center for British Art), and Blake's imaginative designs for Edward Young's Night Thoughts (1779, The British Museum).
Learn more about the objects on view.
View a checklist of works on display in "William Blake" at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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William Blake's "Songs"
The Songs of Innocence and of Experience—which contains the celebrated poems The Tyger, London, and The Sick Rose—is the best known of Blake's works. Originally, Blake produced this minute and colorful volume as two separate books; he combined them in 1794, and continued to print copies from the original relief-etched copper plates throughout his life. Blake claimed to have learned this innovative printing technique in a vision—one of many he said he experienced since childhood—of his deceased younger brother, Robert.
In The Songs, as in all of Blake's illuminated books, the artist and poet took unprecedented control over every aspect of production. He composed the poems, drew the designs, transferred each onto the copperplate, exposed the plates to an acid bath, and, with Catherine's assistance, printed the plates using a large rolling press he kept in his home. Blake mixed his own colors and painted each sheet by hand; his wife bound the pages together in boards. In this way, Blake not only saved the expense of a printer, he was able to work discreetly, avoiding the scrutiny of government spies and censors, as well as the very real possibility of imprisonment for publishing seditious material.
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Highlights of the Exhibition
Many of the artist's greatest works were on view in "William Blake," including the apocalyptic Angel of the Revelation (ca. 1803–05), the commanding Ancient of Days (ca. 1824, The Whitworth Art Gallery, The University of Manchester), the powerful and iconic large color prints Nebuchadnezzar and Newton (both ca. 1805, Tate Britain), and a rare tempera painting, Ghost of a Flea (ca. 1819–20, Tate Britain). A notable highlight was a series of late watercolor illustrations to Dante's Divine Comedy, many loaned by the National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne, Australia) and exhibited at The Metropolitan Museum of Art for the first time in this country.
Learn more about highlights of the exhibition.
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Educational Programs
A variety of educational programs—including poetry readings, lectures, films, and curator-led gallery talks—were offered at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in conjunction with the exhibition.
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Audio Tour and Electronic Resources
A special audio tour, part of the Metropolitan's Key to the Met Audio Guide, was available for rental at the entrance to the exhibition. The audio tour featured Harold Bloom, Yale University Sterling Professor of the Humanities and noted Blake scholar, and included optional stops for families with children six years of age and up.
The Key to the Met Audio Guide program was sponsored by Bloomberg News.
Computer terminals located near the "William Blake" exhibition provided visitors with access to The William Blake Archive, a vast online resource for additional research and information about Blake's work and life.
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Exhibition Publication
A full-color catalogue—published in paperback by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in hardcover by Harry N. Abrams, Inc., and distributed in the U.S. by Harry N. Abrams, Inc.—accompanied the Metropolitan's presentation of "William Blake." It includes essays by biographer and historian Peter Ackroyd, and literary scholar Marilyn Butler, with additional contributions from curators at Tate Britain and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is available in the Metropolitan's bookshops and in the online Met Store.
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Exhibition Organizers and Credits
"William Blake" was organized by Robin Hamlyn, senior curator, Tate Collections, for the period 1780–1860, with Michael Phillips, reader at the University of York. At the Metropolitan, the exhibition was organized by Elizabeth Barker, assistant curator in the Department of Drawings and Prints. Exhibition design was by Michael Langley, exhibition designer, with graphics by Constance Norkin, graphic designer, and lighting by Zack Zanolli, lighting designer, all of the Museum's Design Department.
The Metropolitan Museum is grateful to the Robert Lehman Foundation for making the Robert Lehman Wing galleries available for the exhibition.
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