Graphite, ink and watercolour on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Art Fund
Illustrations to Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’
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>
Wood SelfMurderers Harpies and Suicides
Purchased with the assistance of a special grant from the National Gallery and donations from the Art Fund, Lord Duveen and others, and presented through the Art Fund 1919
adults
animal / human
animals: fantastic
birth to death
blood
body
characters
classical myths: creatures
Dante
Dante, ‘Divine Comedy: Inferno’
forest
Harpy
landscape
literature (not Shakespeare)
literature and fiction
man
people
plant / human
religion and belief
society
suicide
Virgil
<p>This work illustrates a scene from 14th century Italian writer Dante Alighieri's <span>Inferno.</span> <span>Inferno</span> tells of Dante’s journey through Hell, guided by the ancient Roman poet Virgil. Here, Blake depicts Dante and Virgil encountering the ‘Wood of the Suicides’. Suicide was then considered an immoral act. The souls of those who have died by suicide have been transformed into trees as punishment. Harpies, mythological birds with the head of women, feed upon them.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2019</em></p>
paper unique graphite ink watercolour
8 July 2002 – 1 October 2003
2003-10-01
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-07-08
William Blake Body and Soul
Collection based display
8 July 2002 – 16 March 2003
2003-03-16
8 July 2002 – 16 March 2003
2003-03-16
2002-07-08
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-07-08
Body and Soul
Collection based display
11 November 2010 – 3 April 2011
2011-04-03
11 November 2010 – 3 April 2011
2011-04-03
2010-11-11
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2010-11-11
Blake and Physiognomy
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
20 April 2015 – 7 May 2017
2017-05-07
20 April 2015 – 7 May 2017
2017-05-07
2015-04-20
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2015-04-20
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
The Wood of the Self-Murderers: The Harpies and the Suicides
support: 372 × 527 mm
Purchased with the assistance of a special grant from the National Gallery and donations from the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a>, Lord Duveen and others, and presented through the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a> 1919
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<p>This work illustrates a scene from 14th century Italian writer Dante Alighieri's <i>Inferno.</i> <i>Inferno</i> tells of Dante’s journey through Hell, guided by the ancient Roman poet Virgil. Here, Blake depicts Dante and Virgil encountering the ‘Wood of the Suicides’. Suicide was then considered an immoral act. The souls of those who have died by suicide have been transformed into trees as punishment. Harpies, mythological birds with the head of women, feed upon them. </p>
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Display caption
2019-08-30T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
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<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-the-wood-of-the-self-murderers-the-harpies-and-the-suicides-n03356" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N03356</span></a> <b>The Wood of the Self-Murderers: The Harpies and the Suicides</b> 1824–7 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/A00005" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'A00005');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>A00005</span></a>–<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/A00011" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'A00011');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>A00011</span></a>; <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/N03351" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'N03351');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>N03351</span></a>-<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/N03370" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'N03370');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>N03370</span></a>; <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/T01950" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'T01950');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>T01950</span></a>-<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/T01956" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'T01956');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>T01956</span></a>; complete]<br/>N 03356 / B 812 <i>24</i>
<br/>Pen and watercolour 372×527 (14 5/8×20 3/4)<br/>Inscribed ‘HELL Canto 13’ in ink b.r. and, on reverse in pencil, ‘N21 next at p.86’ t.c. and again in centre, turned through a right-angle, and ‘Hell Canto 13’ b.r.<br/>Watermarked ‘WELGAR 1796’<br/>Purchased with the assistance of a special grant from the National Gallery and donations from the National Art-Collections Fund, Lord Duveen and others, and presented through the National Art-Collections Fund 1919<br/>PROVENANCE As for N03351<br/>EXHIBITED Pescara 1983 (5, repr.in colour)<br/>LITERATURE Rossetti 1863, p.217 no.101w, and 1880, p.229 no.123w; Roe 1953, pp.79–80 no.24, repr.; Klonsky 1977, p.115, repr.; Klonsky 1980, p.143, colour pl.25; Butlin 1981, pp.563–4 no.812 <i>24</i>; Gizzi 1983, p.103 repr., and repr. in colour p.57; Warner 1984, p.112<br/>This is an illustration to <i>Inferno</i> XIII, 2–108, a scene in the second ring of the seventh circle of hell. Dante and Virgil are in a wood full of harpies, birds with human heads which feed upon the leaves of trees in which are encased people who have killed themselves. Dante has just torn a branch off the tree in which is embedded Pier delle Vigne, a minister of the Emperor Frederick II who took his own life after losing favour. The upside-down female figure transformed into a tree on the left may have been suggested by Dante's reference to ‘La Meretrice’, Envy, to whom Pier delle Vigne attributes his disgrace; it also represents the vegetative existence seen at its lowest.<br/>
<br/>
<b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Martin Butlin, <i>William Blake 1757–1827</i>, Tate Gallery Collections, V, London 1990</p>
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Catalogue entry
2021-07-02T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults animal / human animals: fantastic birth to death blood body characters classical myths: creatures Dante Dante, ‘Divine Comedy: Inferno’ forest Harpy landscape literature and fiction literature (not Shakespeare) man people plant / human religion and belief society suicide Virgil