Tempera on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Art Fund
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/william-blake-39" aria-label="More by William Blake" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">William Blake</a>
Bathsheba at Bath
Presented by the Art Fund 1914
2 Samuel, chapter 11
actions: postures and motions
actions: processes and functions
adults
architecture
bathing / swimming
Bathsheba
Bible: Old Testament
boy
children
column
David
desire
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
features
female
flower
garden
garden structures
girl
leisure and pastimes
lily
looking / watching
nudes
people
plants and flowers
pool
recreational activities
religion and belief
standing
water: inland
woman
<p>This is one of fifty small biblical pictures commissioned from Blake by his patron, Thomas Butts, in 1799. It illustrates a verse from the second Book of Samuel in the Old Testament: And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that King David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the palace: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon. This woman was Bathsheba, wife of Uriah. David, shown in the upper right corner, was to father her child, and arrange the death of her husband.</p><p><em>Gallery label, April 2001</em></p>
painting tempera canvas
24 November 2003 – 22 November 2004
2004-11-22
10 November 2003
2003-11-10
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2003-11-24
William Blake the Painter at Work
Collection based display
1 November 2011 – 21 October 2012
2012-10-21
1 November 2011 – 19 February 2012
2012-02-19
2011-11-01
State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow, Russia)
3 July 2012 – 21 October 2012
2012-10-21
2012-07-03
Fundació “la Caixa” (Madrid, Spain)
2011-11-01
Blake Exhibition
Loan-out
13 May 2013 – 6 April 2015
2015-04-06
13 May 2013 – 6 April 2015
2015-04-06
2013-05-13
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2013-05-13
William Blake
Collection based display
29 October 2024 – 30 September 2025
2025-09-30
30 October 2024 – 2 February 2025
2025-02-02
2024-10-30
Reggia di Venaria Reale (Turin, Italy)
1 September 2025 – 31 January 2026
2026-01-31
2025-09-01
Museum of Fine Arts (Budapest, Hungary)
1 March 2026 – 31 August 2026
2026-08-31
2026-03-01
External
2024-10-29
William Blake and the Age of Romantic Fantasy: British Art & Imagination
Loan-out
Bathsheba at the Bath
support: 263 × 376 mm
frame: 370 × 479 × 50 mm
Presented by the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a> 1914
<p>This is one of fifty small biblical pictures  commissioned from Blake by his patron,  Thomas Butts, in 1799. It illustrates a verse from  the second Book of Samuel in the Old Testament:
</p><p>
</p><p>
And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that  King David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the palace: and from the roof  he saw a woman washing herself; and the  woman was very beautiful to look upon.
</p><p>
</p><p>
This woman was Bathsheba, wife of Uriah. David, shown in the upper right corner, was to father  her child, and arrange the death of her husband.</p>
Display caption
2001-04-04T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-bathsheba-at-the-bath-n03007" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N03007</span></a> <b>Bathsheba at the Bath</b> <i>c.</i> 1799–1800
<br/></p>
<p>N 03007 / B 390
<br/>Tempera on canvas, previously relined and now mounted on board 263×376 (10 3/8×14 13/16), cut down from approx. 265×380 (10 1/2×15)
<br/>Signed ‘WB inv’ in monogram b.r.
<br/>Presented by the National Art-Collections Fund 1914
<br/>PROVENANCE Thomas Butts; Thomas Butts, jun.; Capt. F.J. Butts, sold Sotheby's 24 June 1903 (8) £80 bt Knowles; Carfax 1904; F.P. Osmaston by 1906, sold 1914 to the National Art-Collections Fund
<br/>EXHIBITED Carfax 1904 (8); Carfax 1906 (8); Tate Gallery 1913 (13); Paris, Antwerp, Zurich and Tate Gallery 1947 (4); Arts Council 1951 (14, pl.4); Hamburg and Frankfurt 1975 (99, colour pl.6); Tate Gallery 1978 (135, repr.)
<br/>LITERATURE Rossetti 1863, p.225 no.125, and 1880, p.237 no.150; Fry in <i>Burlington Magazine</i>, IV, 1904, p.206, repr. p.210; <i>N.A.-C.F. Report for 1914</i>, 1915, p.37, repr.; Keynes <i>Bible</i> 1957, p.18 no.60 repr.; Blunt 1959, pp.65–6, pl. 34a; Damon 1965, pp.38–9; John E. Grant, ‘Two Flowers in the Garden of Experience’, Rosenfeld 1969, p.489 n. 36; Bindman 1977, pp.120, 126–7; Klonsky 1977, p.70, repr.; Paley 1978, p.55; Butlin 1981, p.321 no.390, colour pl. 498; Baine 1986, p.161
<br/></p>
<p>This is an illustration to II Samuel xi, 2. King David observes the naked Bathsheba, wife of Uriah, from the roof of his palace. The two children, one male, one female, were added by Blake, not being mentioned in the text, though Bathsheba did eventually bear a son to David after he had arranged the death of her husband. The imagery is particularly sensuous and suggests the influence of Parmigianino or Correggio, whose work would have been known to Blake through <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/engraving" title="Glossary definition for 'Engraving'"><span>engravings</span></a> if not through actual <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a>.
<br/>
<br/>This picture was restored by W.G. Littlejohn in 1914 and again at the Tate Gallery in 1957 (a detail is repr. before and after restoration in <i>Tate Gallery Annual Report 1957–8</i>, 1958, between pp.18 and 19).</p>
<p>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Martin Butlin, <i>William Blake 1757-1827</i>, Tate Gallery Collections, V, London 1990
<br/>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-05T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
2 Samuel, chapter 11 actions: postures and motions actions: processes and functions adults architecture bathing / swimming Bathsheba Bible: Old Testament boy children column David desire emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas features female flower garden garden structures girl leisure and pastimes lily looking / watching nudes people plants and flowers pool recreational activities religion and belief standing water: inland woman