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拍品專文
This extraordinarily dramatic watercolour is one of the designs Blake produced for Robert Cromek’s illustrated edition of Robert Blair’s The Grave. In September 1805, Cromek, an engraver turned publisher, commissioned Blake to provide the illustrations for an imperial quarto deluxe edition of the poem. The project was financed by advanced subscriptions, but the details of the exact scope of Blake’s illustrations is somewhat confused. John Flaxman noted a set of 40 drawings, from which 20 would be engraved by Blake, whereas in Blake’s correspondence he refers to ‘about twenty’ and then to a prospectus. Two prospectuses are in fact known, one referring to fifteen illustrations, to be drawn and engraved by Blake (see fig. 1), and the second (slightly later) to twelve illustrations, designed by Blake but engraved by Louis Schiavonetti.
This change to the plan has been widely regarded as a betrayal of Blake by Cromek in favour of the more conventional Schiavonetti, and certainly, the relationship between the two men never recovered. The Grave was finally published in July 1808, with over 500 advance subscribers. It was modestly successful at first, but a new issue in 1813 led to a continued growth in its reputation. By the mid 19th-Century Blake’s illustrations to The Grave were probably his best-known works.
The group of drawings Blake made for Cromek were thought lost for many years – they were sold at the auction of the collection of Thomas Sivright at C.B. Tait in Edinburgh on 10 February 1836, listed rather vaguely as ‘Volume of Drawings by Blake, Illustrative of Blair’s Grave, entitled “Black Spirits and White, Blue Spirits and Grey”.’ The buyer was not listed, and all record was then lost, until nineteen appeared with a second-hand bookshop in Glasgow, Scotland in spring 2001, having been acquired from a descendant of the artist John Stannard.
The Reunion of the Soul & the Body is the final illustration in Cromek’s edition of The Grave (see fig. 3). The counterpart to The Soul Hovering Over the Body (fig. 4), it works in direct opposition to that image. There, Blake chooses the quietest moment from the poem to illustrate the subject, whereas here he chooses the most dramatic, taking inspiration from the following lines:
When the dread trumpet sounds, the slumb’ring dust,
Not unattentive to the call, shall wake;
And every joint possess it’s proper place,
With a new elegance of form, unknown
To it’s first state. Nor shall the conscious soul
Mistake it’s partner; but, amidst the crowd
Singling it’s other half, into it’s arms
Shall rush… (p.32)
Blake depicts the soul rushing down, her hair and diaphanous drapery following in the wind, and embracing the resurrected body. The body is partly draped in what must be his shroud, which falls away as he reaches up to the soul. Blake gives the reunion a sexual element entirely of his own invention and not referenced in the poem, but enhanced by the delicate reds and blues of the flames surrounding the figures.
This change to the plan has been widely regarded as a betrayal of Blake by Cromek in favour of the more conventional Schiavonetti, and certainly, the relationship between the two men never recovered. The Grave was finally published in July 1808, with over 500 advance subscribers. It was modestly successful at first, but a new issue in 1813 led to a continued growth in its reputation. By the mid 19th-Century Blake’s illustrations to The Grave were probably his best-known works.
The group of drawings Blake made for Cromek were thought lost for many years – they were sold at the auction of the collection of Thomas Sivright at C.B. Tait in Edinburgh on 10 February 1836, listed rather vaguely as ‘Volume of Drawings by Blake, Illustrative of Blair’s Grave, entitled “Black Spirits and White, Blue Spirits and Grey”.’ The buyer was not listed, and all record was then lost, until nineteen appeared with a second-hand bookshop in Glasgow, Scotland in spring 2001, having been acquired from a descendant of the artist John Stannard.
The Reunion of the Soul & the Body is the final illustration in Cromek’s edition of The Grave (see fig. 3). The counterpart to The Soul Hovering Over the Body (fig. 4), it works in direct opposition to that image. There, Blake chooses the quietest moment from the poem to illustrate the subject, whereas here he chooses the most dramatic, taking inspiration from the following lines:
When the dread trumpet sounds, the slumb’ring dust,
Not unattentive to the call, shall wake;
And every joint possess it’s proper place,
With a new elegance of form, unknown
To it’s first state. Nor shall the conscious soul
Mistake it’s partner; but, amidst the crowd
Singling it’s other half, into it’s arms
Shall rush… (p.32)
Blake depicts the soul rushing down, her hair and diaphanous drapery following in the wind, and embracing the resurrected body. The body is partly draped in what must be his shroud, which falls away as he reaches up to the soul. Blake gives the reunion a sexual element entirely of his own invention and not referenced in the poem, but enhanced by the delicate reds and blues of the flames surrounding the figures.