William Blake, Jacob’s Ladder 1799-1806. Pen and grey ink and watercolour on paper © The Trustees of the British Museum
200 years ago, at age fifty-two, William Blake had his first exhibition at a tiny gallery in London’s Soho district. Not a single work sold, and worse, the only review has been called one of the harshest in history of British art. Tate Britain have managed to locate ten of the sixteen original works, the tenth just recently added having been deemed sturdy enough for travel to their gallery. The exhibition opened April 20 and will remain through October 4.
Read more at Culture24
For those of you in Paris, or planning a trip there, “the first ever retrospective of William Blake in France” is at the Petit Palais through June 28th, titled William Blake: The Visionary Genius of British Romanticism.
Europe, A Prophecy: The Ancient of Days. Frontispiece – 1794. © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge