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Tate Britain Exhibition

William Blake, 1757–1827

20 August – 30 September 1947

William Blake, Bathsheba at the Bath c.1799–1800. Tate.

William Blake
Bathsheba at the Bath (c.1799–1800)
Tate

The exhibition of the work of William Blake which the British Council has been able to send to Paris, Antwerp and Zürich is of outstanding importance thanks in the first place to the generous cooperation of the Trustees of the Tate Gallery and of the veteran collector Mr. Graham Robertson.

For many years Mr. Graham Robertson's Blake collection has been renowned as the most distinguished in existence. His purchases from the Butts family of the group of masterpieces accumulated by the artist's friend and patron, Thomas Butts, form a substantial nucleus, but to these have been added many other splendid examples.

Setting aside the 25 examples drawn from the Tate, a total of 45 out of the remaining 66 works in this exhibition are from the collection formed by Mr. Robertson.

Nine of these, the magnificent series of colour-printed drawings, which are perhaps the crown of Blake's achievement, were presented to the Gallery in 1939. For the first time these are here shown together with a tenth, Christ Appearing, the only example remaining in the possession of their former owner and now on loan for this occasion.

Tate Britain

Millbank
London SW1P 4RG
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Dates

20 August – 30 September 1947

Find out more

  •  
     

    Appealing to the Public: William Blake in 1809 – Part 1

    Two hundred years on this symposium explores the 1809 exhibition, drawing on a special display of reunited surviving works, and considers Blake's artistic imagination and the art world of early nineteenth-century London.

  •  
     

    Appealing to the Public: William Blake in 1809 – Part 2

    Two hundred years on this symposium explores the 1809 exhibition, drawing on a special display of reunited surviving works, and considers Blake's artistic imagination and the art world of early nineteenth-century London.

  •  
     

    Appealing to the Public: William Blake in 1809 – Part 3

    Two hundred years on this symposium explores the 1809 exhibition, drawing on a special display of reunited surviving works, and considers Blake's artistic imagination and the art world of early nineteenth-century London.

  •  
     

    Appealing to the Public: William Blake in 1809 – Part 4

    Two hundred years on this symposium explores the 1809 exhibition, drawing on a special display of reunited surviving works, and considers Blake's artistic imagination and the art world of early nineteenth-century London.

  • William Blake

    Special display marking the 250th anniversary of the birth of William Blake.

  • William Blake

    William Blake: past Tate Britain exhibition

  • Lost in the Crowd: Blake and London in 1809

    Philippa Simpson

    This article explores why William Blake’s solo exhibition of 1809 has been such an important source for understanding his attitude towards past art by locating the show within London’s rapidly expanding culture of Old Master displays. Blake’s exhibition is revealed as a carefully choreographed riposte to shifts in the consumption of art in the capital.

  • Reasoned Exhibitions: Blake in 1809 and Reynolds in 1813

    Konstantinos Stefanis

    This paper considers Blake’s 1809 exhibition in the light of the nascent practice of retrospective exhibitions and compares it with the commemorative exhibition of Reynolds’s paintings organised by the British Institution in 1813.

  • William Blake’s 1809 Exhibition

    Martin Myrone and David Blayney Brown

    This paper introduces the 1809 London exhibition that William Blake organised of his own works, exploring its high ambition and disastrous failure. It also sets the scene for the other three articles about Blake’s exhibition in this issue of Tate Papers, examining the London art world and the emerging exhibition and commercial culture in early nineteenth-century Britain.

  • Artist

    William Blake

    1757–1827
Artwork
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