Lot Essay
In 1820 Blake was commissioned by Dr. Thornton, presumably through an introduction by John Linnell, to provide a number of illustrations engraved on both copper and on wood for the third edition (1821) of his educational work on The Pastorals of Virgil. The blocks that Blake submitted were derided by the other illustrators participating in the project and it was only through the intervention of artists such as John Linnell, Sir Thomas Lawrence, James Ward and others that Thornton was persuaded to accept Blake's illustrations. However, without reference to Blake, the blocks were substantially if not brutally reduced to fit the book.
Five 'proof' sheets are recorded by Bentley, each showing a group of four full and uncut subjects. Three of these sheets show the published subjects 2-5 and two sheets subjects 6-9. All have been described until now as extremely rare first state impressions taken from uncut and undivided blocks of wood. The medium for these 'proof' sheets is here correctly described as relief etching, for a close examination of this impression, of the two at the British Museum and of the signed example at the Fitzwilliam along with an equally close comparison of all with not only other relief etchings by Blake but also with the 'cut' impressions of the wood engravings as published by Thornton shows clearly that different matrices have been used. It has not been possible to examine the proof sheet at Boston but in all probability it ressembles the four sheets in British collections.
Following the completion of the wood engravings and prior to the consignment of the blocks to Thornton the presumption offered here is that Blake transferred at least two sets of four images to two copper plates to be etched in relief. As with many of Blake's relief etching it is difficult to be precise as to how this transfer of image from one matrix to another was effected or indeed how the artist subsequently bit or incised the metal plate. The only contemporary account for the actual printing is that given much later in 1864 by Samuel Palmer in his description of the signed (Fitzwilliam) sheet that had been sent to a friend: 'Mr Blake gave this page to me in Fountain Court: impressions taken there, at his own press, by his own hands, and signed by him under my eyes...' (G. E. Bentley, Blake Records, p. 272, note 1). Equally unclear is why Blake should seek to transfer some of the Thornton Virgil images from one medium to another. One can only surmise that despite the commission to engrave on wood Blake's personal preference for relief etchings as the means to illustarte text led him to experiment in that direction. The experiment, evidenced in this impression by the two joined sheets of paper, was presumably abandoned as Blake became involved in other more pressing projects. In any event, impressions remain extremely scarce. Bentley records only five impressions but a few more may exist. A type-written note in the Rinder archive and presumably by Rinder himself describes the discovery in 1919 of some proof sheets in the Linnell collection. The examples sold to Rinder and the two sheets given to the British Museum in that year are mentioned and the Linnell estate is described as having retained duplicates of two sheets. It is not clear from Rinder's note whether the retained duplicates are the same two impressions as those he descibes as being in the Pierpoint Morgan Library (not recorded by Bentley) and in Boston. All these impressions may be quite separate in provenance to the Fitzwilliam sheet which came originally from Samuel Palmer and whose companion sheet was at one stage in A. H. Palmer's collection.
The new definition of the medium for this sheet not only sheds fresh light on Blake's methods of printing but also raises the question as to whether any 'uncut' impressions of the wood engravings actually exist. A full examination of the blocks in the British Museum may also reveal a lack of concordance in the disposition of the grain and suggest that the wood engraved images themselves were not originally incised four to a block as has hitherto been believed.
Five 'proof' sheets are recorded by Bentley, each showing a group of four full and uncut subjects. Three of these sheets show the published subjects 2-5 and two sheets subjects 6-9. All have been described until now as extremely rare first state impressions taken from uncut and undivided blocks of wood. The medium for these 'proof' sheets is here correctly described as relief etching, for a close examination of this impression, of the two at the British Museum and of the signed example at the Fitzwilliam along with an equally close comparison of all with not only other relief etchings by Blake but also with the 'cut' impressions of the wood engravings as published by Thornton shows clearly that different matrices have been used. It has not been possible to examine the proof sheet at Boston but in all probability it ressembles the four sheets in British collections.
Following the completion of the wood engravings and prior to the consignment of the blocks to Thornton the presumption offered here is that Blake transferred at least two sets of four images to two copper plates to be etched in relief. As with many of Blake's relief etching it is difficult to be precise as to how this transfer of image from one matrix to another was effected or indeed how the artist subsequently bit or incised the metal plate. The only contemporary account for the actual printing is that given much later in 1864 by Samuel Palmer in his description of the signed (Fitzwilliam) sheet that had been sent to a friend: 'Mr Blake gave this page to me in Fountain Court: impressions taken there, at his own press, by his own hands, and signed by him under my eyes...' (G. E. Bentley, Blake Records, p. 272, note 1). Equally unclear is why Blake should seek to transfer some of the Thornton Virgil images from one medium to another. One can only surmise that despite the commission to engrave on wood Blake's personal preference for relief etchings as the means to illustarte text led him to experiment in that direction. The experiment, evidenced in this impression by the two joined sheets of paper, was presumably abandoned as Blake became involved in other more pressing projects. In any event, impressions remain extremely scarce. Bentley records only five impressions but a few more may exist. A type-written note in the Rinder archive and presumably by Rinder himself describes the discovery in 1919 of some proof sheets in the Linnell collection. The examples sold to Rinder and the two sheets given to the British Museum in that year are mentioned and the Linnell estate is described as having retained duplicates of two sheets. It is not clear from Rinder's note whether the retained duplicates are the same two impressions as those he descibes as being in the Pierpoint Morgan Library (not recorded by Bentley) and in Boston. All these impressions may be quite separate in provenance to the Fitzwilliam sheet which came originally from Samuel Palmer and whose companion sheet was at one stage in A. H. Palmer's collection.
The new definition of the medium for this sheet not only sheds fresh light on Blake's methods of printing but also raises the question as to whether any 'uncut' impressions of the wood engravings actually exist. A full examination of the blocks in the British Museum may also reveal a lack of concordance in the disposition of the grain and suggest that the wood engraved images themselves were not originally incised four to a block as has hitherto been believed.