Graphite on paper
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attributed to <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/john-linnell-351" aria-label="More by John Linnell" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">John Linnell</a>
Man who Built Pyramids after William Blake
Bequeathed by Miss Alice G.E. Carthew 1940
adults
architect
Blake, William, ‘The Man who Built the Pyramids’
body
domestic
domestic
education, science and learning
fine art and design, named works
fine arts and music
head / face
hieroglyphic text
industrial and crafts
inscriptions
interior - non-specific
interiors
key
man
mouth
objects
people
physiognomy
portfolio
society
symbols and personifications
work and occupations
<p>The artist John Linnell was one of Blake’s main friends and patrons in his later years. This drawing is a copy of one of Blake’s designs for John Varley’s projected ‘Treatise on Zodiacal Physiognomy.’ The designs are called ‘Visionary Heads’ because Blake reputedly based them on characters he had seen in his visions. The main figure is the architect of the pyramids, but Blake has made other drawings alongside this. These show the architect's open mouth, the 'Egyptian' interior where Blake’s vision took place, and the architect's portfolio inscribed with hieroglyphics.</p><p><em>Gallery label, October 2023</em></p>
paper unique graphite
17 April 2023 – 12 May 2024
2024-05-12
17 April 2023 – 12 May 2024
2024-05-12
2023-04-17
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2023-04-17
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 Man who Built the Pyramids (after William Blake)
support: 298 × 214 mm
frame: 480 × 375 × 20 mm
Bequeathed by Miss Alice G.E. Carthew 1940
<div class="text">
<p>The artist John Linnell was one of Blake’s main friends and patrons in his later years. This drawing is a copy of one of Blake’s designs for John Varley’s projected ‘Treatise on Zodiacal Physiognomy.’ The designs are called ‘Visionary Heads’ because Blake reputedly based them on characters he had seen in his visions. The main figure is the architect of the pyramids, but Blake has made other drawings alongside this. These show the architect's open mouth, the 'Egyptian' interior where Blake’s vision took place, and the architect's portfolio inscribed with hieroglyphics. </p>
</div>

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2023-10-26T00:00:00
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/linnell-the-man-who-built-the-pyramids-after-william-blake-n05185" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05185</span></a> <b>The Man who Built the Pyramids</b>
<br/></p>
<p>N 05185 / B 752
<br/>Pencil, framing line 287×197 (11 5/16×7 3/4), on paper 298×214 (11 3/4×8 7/16)
<br/>Inscribed by John Linnell ‘Oct<sup>r</sup> 18.1819. 15 Degrees of Cancer ascending’ b.r. and ‘The Man who built the Pyramids drawn by William Blake’ below design, and, on back, ‘JL’
<br/>Bequeathed by Miss Alice G.E. Carthew 1940
<br/>PROVENANCE John Linnell, sold Christie's 15 March 1918 (in 164 with nos.63, 66 and 67) £54.12.0 bought Miss Carthew
<br/>EXHIBITED BFAC 1927 (60); Paris and Vienna 1937 (15); <i>Wartime Acquisitions, 2nd Exhibition</i>
CEMA tour 1944–5 (5)
<br/>LITERATURE Gilchrist 1863, 1, p.252, repr.; Rossetti 1863, p.243 list 2 no.32, and 1880, p.259 list 2 no. 31; Keynes <i>Drawings</i> 1927, no.41 repr.; Bentley <i>Blake Records</i> 1969, p.259; Butlin 1969, pp.14–15, 29–30, pl.4; Roe in Rosenfeld 1969, pp.175, 194; Keynes <i>Drawings</i> 1970, no.62 repr.; Wilson 1971, p.68 n.; Klonsky 1977, p.123, repr.; Mellor in Essick and Pearce 1978, pp.69–71, pl.79; Butlin 1981, pp.525–6 no.752, pl.979
<br/></p>
<p>The inscription on <span>N05185</span>, <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-man-who-taught-blake-painting-in-his-dreams-counterproof-n05187" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05187</span></a> and <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/linnell-the-man-who-taught-blake-painting-in-his-dreams-after-william-blake-n05186" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05186</span></a> were formerly attributed to John Varley but are similar to those on Linnell's <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a> of Blake in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (repr. Keynes <i><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/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>Portraiture</span></a></i> 1977, pls.29–33) and Blake's drawing of Linnell in the Lessing J. Rosenwald collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington (Butlin 1981, no.688, repr. pl.905). Linnell's monogram on the reverse may only be a mark of ownership but could well be a signature implying authorship of the drawing.
<br/>
<br/>This drawing appears to be a replica of a missing page from the Small Blake-Varley Sketchbook, page 103 of which (Butlin no.692 <i>103</i>, repr. Butlin 1969) contains a number of drawings and colour notes mainly if not wholly related to this <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a>, both to the main figure and to such details as the <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/portfolio" title="Glossary definition for 'Portfolio'"><span>portfolio</span></a> shown in the lower left-hand corner and the ‘Egyptian’ interior above this. The facing page 102 is missing but, by analogy with other drawings of details in the sketchbook which face the complete compositions to which they refer (see, for instance, <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-a-figure-standing-in-a-gothic-apse-perhaps-the-empress-maud-verso-detailed-drawings-t01334" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T01334</span></a> <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/r/recto-verso" title="Glossary definition for 'Recto / Verso'"><span>verso</span></a>), can be assumed to have contained Blake's original drawing of the whole composition. Although both Linnell and Varley probably made replicas or copies of Blake's Visionary Heads, and Blake himself may have done so as well, the relatively high degree of precision and finish, coupled with a certain feeling of deadness, point to Linnell as the artist.
<br/>
<br/>As well as the main figure the sheet contains a drawing of his mouth open instead of shut (as in ‘The Head of the Ghost of a Flea’, <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-head-of-the-ghost-of-a-flea-verso-a-profile-and-a-reduced-drawing-of-miltons-n05184" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05184</span></a>), ‘the Place where Blake saw this Personage’ (as Rossetti described it in his title) and the architect's portfolio. This last, it appears from the annotated drawing in the sketchbook, was ‘Black’ surrounding ‘White Satinwood’, contained ‘8 tablets’ and was tied with ‘Blue Catgut’. The architect had a ‘Blue Ribbon’ round his hair, a ‘Black Shiny face’, and a ‘gold cord’ on which hung a ‘gold’ key. The reference to ‘15 Degrees of Cancer ascending’ reflects Varley's interest in Zodiacal physiognomy; Roe suggests that the pseudo-hieroglyphics on the portfolio repeat this inscription.
<br/>
<br/>For Blake ‘The Man who Built the Pyramids’ would have represented materialistic oppression. In <i>Jerusalem</i> he wrote, ‘&amp; souls are bak'd In bricks to build the pyramids of Heber &amp; Terah’ (plate 45 (31); Keynes <i>Writings</i>
1957, p.657).</p>
<p>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Martin Butlin, <i>William Blake 1757-1827</i>, Tate Gallery Collections, V, London 1990
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-07T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults architect Blake, William, ‘The Man who Built the Pyramids’ body domestic domestic education, science and learning fine art and design, named works fine arts and music head / face hieroglyphic text industrial and crafts inscriptions interior - non-specific interiors key man mouth objects people physiognomy portfolio society symbols and personifications work and occupations