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Lot Essay
The description by John Varley, the watercolourist and friend of William Blake, of the creation of the Ghost of a Flea drawings is one of the most extraordinary eye-witness accounts of the visionary artist at work. The drawings were in part done in connection with Varley's prospected Treatise on Zodiacal Physiognomy, the first and only part of which was published in 1828 and from which this account is taken:
'With respect to the vision of the ghost of the Flea, seen by Blake, it agrees in countenance with one class of people under Gemini, which sign is the significator of the Flea; whose brown colour is appropriate to the colour of the eyes in some full-toned Gemini persons. And the neatness, elasticity, and tenseness of the Flea, are significant of the elegant dancing and fencing sign of Gemini. This spirit visited his imagination in such a figure as he never anticipated in an insect. As I was anxious to make the most correct investigation in my power, of the truth of these visions, on hearing of this spiritual apparition of a Flea, I asked him if he could draw for me the resemblance of what he saw: he instantly said, 'I see him now before me.' I therefore gave him paper and a pencil, with which he drew the portrait, of which a fac-simile is given in this number. I felt convinced by his mode of proceeding, that he had a real image before him, for he left off, and began on another part of the paper, to make a separate drawing of the mouth of the Flea, which the spirit having opened, he was prevented from proceeding with the first sketch, till he had closed it. During the time occupied in completing the drawing, the Flea told him that all fleas were inhabited by the souls of such men, as were by nature blood-thirsty to excess, and were therefore providentially confined to the size and form of insects; otherwise, were he himself for instance the size of a horse, he would depopulate a great portion of the country. He added, that if in attempting to leap from one island to another, he should fall into the sea, he could swim, and should not be lost. This spirit afterwards appeared to Blake, and afforded him a view of his whole figure, an engraving of which I shall give in this work.'
The first drawing described by Varley is now in the Tate Gallery (Butlin, op.cit, 1981, no. 692 98) and was in fact the one engraved for the Treatise; the 'whole figure' as seen in the present drawing was developed in the small tempera painting in the Tate (Butlin, op.cit, 1981, no. 750, colour pl. 966). Both drawings came from the Small Blake-Varley Sketchbook (Butlin, 1969, the whole illustrated, Butlin, 1981, pp. 495-506, no. 692). As Varley had begun filling his sketchbook at the beginning Blake in his turn began at the end, the Tate drawing having been done on page 98 with the present drawing following two sheets later on page 94. Whereas the page now in the Tate was removed from the sketchbook early on and was sold from the Linnell collection in 1918, this drawing remained in the book until it was dismembered in the 1960s.
Many of Blake's other 'Visionary Heads' also come from the same sketchbook or from the Large Blake-Varley sketchbook which reappeared in 1989 after the publication of Butlin's 1981 catalogue; this new discovery meant that the early provenance of the Small Blake-Varley sketchbook had to be reassessed as is shown in the provenance given above (see Christie's, London, 21 March 1989, pp. 9, 12, and 14 November 1989, p. 90).
The drawing on the verso (page 93 of the sketchbook) shows a vast Stonehenge-like cromlech. Similar structure appears in pl. 4 of Milton, circa 1804-15, where it illustrates the 'stony Druid Temples' that 'overspread the Island ...', and pl. 70 of Jerusalem, circa 1804-20. In front are what are possibly small figures with a large hoop or millstone.
'With respect to the vision of the ghost of the Flea, seen by Blake, it agrees in countenance with one class of people under Gemini, which sign is the significator of the Flea; whose brown colour is appropriate to the colour of the eyes in some full-toned Gemini persons. And the neatness, elasticity, and tenseness of the Flea, are significant of the elegant dancing and fencing sign of Gemini. This spirit visited his imagination in such a figure as he never anticipated in an insect. As I was anxious to make the most correct investigation in my power, of the truth of these visions, on hearing of this spiritual apparition of a Flea, I asked him if he could draw for me the resemblance of what he saw: he instantly said, 'I see him now before me.' I therefore gave him paper and a pencil, with which he drew the portrait, of which a fac-simile is given in this number. I felt convinced by his mode of proceeding, that he had a real image before him, for he left off, and began on another part of the paper, to make a separate drawing of the mouth of the Flea, which the spirit having opened, he was prevented from proceeding with the first sketch, till he had closed it. During the time occupied in completing the drawing, the Flea told him that all fleas were inhabited by the souls of such men, as were by nature blood-thirsty to excess, and were therefore providentially confined to the size and form of insects; otherwise, were he himself for instance the size of a horse, he would depopulate a great portion of the country. He added, that if in attempting to leap from one island to another, he should fall into the sea, he could swim, and should not be lost. This spirit afterwards appeared to Blake, and afforded him a view of his whole figure, an engraving of which I shall give in this work.'
The first drawing described by Varley is now in the Tate Gallery (Butlin, op.cit, 1981, no. 692 98) and was in fact the one engraved for the Treatise; the 'whole figure' as seen in the present drawing was developed in the small tempera painting in the Tate (Butlin, op.cit, 1981, no. 750, colour pl. 966). Both drawings came from the Small Blake-Varley Sketchbook (Butlin, 1969, the whole illustrated, Butlin, 1981, pp. 495-506, no. 692). As Varley had begun filling his sketchbook at the beginning Blake in his turn began at the end, the Tate drawing having been done on page 98 with the present drawing following two sheets later on page 94. Whereas the page now in the Tate was removed from the sketchbook early on and was sold from the Linnell collection in 1918, this drawing remained in the book until it was dismembered in the 1960s.
Many of Blake's other 'Visionary Heads' also come from the same sketchbook or from the Large Blake-Varley sketchbook which reappeared in 1989 after the publication of Butlin's 1981 catalogue; this new discovery meant that the early provenance of the Small Blake-Varley sketchbook had to be reassessed as is shown in the provenance given above (see Christie's, London, 21 March 1989, pp. 9, 12, and 14 November 1989, p. 90).
The drawing on the verso (page 93 of the sketchbook) shows a vast Stonehenge-like cromlech. Similar structure appears in pl. 4 of Milton, circa 1804-15, where it illustrates the 'stony Druid Temples' that 'overspread the Island ...', and pl. 70 of Jerusalem, circa 1804-20. In front are what are possibly small figures with a large hoop or millstone.