Lot Essay
This work, only recently recognised as an original by William Blake, probably comes from the now disbound and dispersed second copy of A Small Book of Designs, dated 1796 on the illustration used as a title-page (see M. Butlin, The Paintings and Drawings of William Blake, New Haven and London, 1981, p.137 no. 261). It corresponds to page 9 of the first copy, now in the British Museum (Butlin, 1981, p. 134 no. 260 9, repr. pl.314).
A third version, from the collection of Sir Geoffrey Keynes and now in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, was hitherto thought to come from the second copy of A Small Book of Designs (Butlin, op.cit., pp.138-9 no. 261 4, repr. pl. 353).
The design was originally used as an illustration at the top of page 3 of Blake's Urizen, 1794, where it seems to illustrate Los (poetic inspiration) rousing his fires (see, inter alia, D. Erdman, The Illuminated Blake, London 1975, p.185, the page from Copy B repr.). In 1796 the design was reissued together with a number of designs from Blake's other books. As Blake later wrote of the first copies of both A Small Book of Designs and the contemporary Large Book of Designs, 'those [works] I printed for Mr. Humphrey are a selection from the different Books of such as could be Printed without the writing...' (letter to Dawson Turner of 9 June 1818). On the back of the version of the small print in the Fitzwilliam Museum is inscribed, not by Blake, 'Oh! Flames of Furious Desires'; this probably derives from an inscription on the mount, now trimmed, similar to those on most of the prints from the second copy of the book.
Blake's technique in his books, a personal development of his own, consisted of printing both text and the outlines of his designs in relief etching. In the books produced early and later in his career the pages were then coloured by hand in watercolour, but c.1794-6 this was replaced by a form of colour-printing, probably done as a second operation after the initial monochromatic printing (for an opposing view, see J. Viscomi, Blake and the Idea of the Book, Princeton, 1993, pp.119-20). More than one copy of each design was produced from a single application of the thick colours to the plate, each pull being marked by a thinner application of the pigments. The outlines and details of the design would then be refined in watercolour and in ink, probably applied from the point of a fine brush. In the case of this composition, the copy in the first copy of A Small Book of Designs in the British Museum was the first to be printed and this version the second, following the first in the placing of the colours and more or less following it in the application of watercolour and ink outlines. The Fitzwilliam Museum version is thinner in the colour printing and the ink outlining is more extensive; the figure's hair is looser and fair in tone rather than tight and dark. This version of the print is further distinguished in that the figure appears to be female, a feature suggested in some of the copies of the book Urizen but not to be found in either of the other separate prints.
The drawing on the reverse is difficult to make out but is typical of some of Blake's most undefined, rapid sketches. In style it is close to a drawing for the title-page of The Song of Los, 1795 (Butlin 1981, p.120 no. 232 verso, repr. pl. 267). It could just possibly be related to the skeletal form on plate 8 of Urizen
A third version, from the collection of Sir Geoffrey Keynes and now in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, was hitherto thought to come from the second copy of A Small Book of Designs (Butlin, op.cit., pp.138-9 no. 261 4, repr. pl. 353).
The design was originally used as an illustration at the top of page 3 of Blake's Urizen, 1794, where it seems to illustrate Los (poetic inspiration) rousing his fires (see, inter alia, D. Erdman, The Illuminated Blake, London 1975, p.185, the page from Copy B repr.). In 1796 the design was reissued together with a number of designs from Blake's other books. As Blake later wrote of the first copies of both A Small Book of Designs and the contemporary Large Book of Designs, 'those [works] I printed for Mr. Humphrey are a selection from the different Books of such as could be Printed without the writing...' (letter to Dawson Turner of 9 June 1818). On the back of the version of the small print in the Fitzwilliam Museum is inscribed, not by Blake, 'Oh! Flames of Furious Desires'; this probably derives from an inscription on the mount, now trimmed, similar to those on most of the prints from the second copy of the book.
Blake's technique in his books, a personal development of his own, consisted of printing both text and the outlines of his designs in relief etching. In the books produced early and later in his career the pages were then coloured by hand in watercolour, but c.1794-6 this was replaced by a form of colour-printing, probably done as a second operation after the initial monochromatic printing (for an opposing view, see J. Viscomi, Blake and the Idea of the Book, Princeton, 1993, pp.119-20). More than one copy of each design was produced from a single application of the thick colours to the plate, each pull being marked by a thinner application of the pigments. The outlines and details of the design would then be refined in watercolour and in ink, probably applied from the point of a fine brush. In the case of this composition, the copy in the first copy of A Small Book of Designs in the British Museum was the first to be printed and this version the second, following the first in the placing of the colours and more or less following it in the application of watercolour and ink outlines. The Fitzwilliam Museum version is thinner in the colour printing and the ink outlining is more extensive; the figure's hair is looser and fair in tone rather than tight and dark. This version of the print is further distinguished in that the figure appears to be female, a feature suggested in some of the copies of the book Urizen but not to be found in either of the other separate prints.
The drawing on the reverse is difficult to make out but is typical of some of Blake's most undefined, rapid sketches. In style it is close to a drawing for the title-page of The Song of Los, 1795 (Butlin 1981, p.120 no. 232 verso, repr. pl. 267). It could just possibly be related to the skeletal form on plate 8 of Urizen