Graphite on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
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 Taught Blake Painting in his Dreams after William Blake
Bequeathed by Miss Alice G.E. Carthew 1940
adults
Blake, William
body
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
head / face
inspiration
man
mysticism
named individuals
people
portraits
religion and belief
self-portraits
vision
<p>This is a replica of one of Blake's drawings of figures that appeared to him in visions.  It has also been proposed that Blake's image might be a 'visionary self-portrait', showing the artist himself at the moment of the inspiration. The strange form  on the forehead may represent flames  of inspiration. This idea of inspiration, particularly divine inspiration, is central  to the Romantic imagination that Herbert Read saw as the ancestor of Surrealism.  It also anticipates the Surrealists' interest  in dream imagery.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2004</em></p>
paper unique graphite
18 November 2002 – 23 March 2003
2003-03-23
18 November 2002 – 23 March 2003
2003-03-23
2002-11-18
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-11-18
Paul Nash: The Englishness of Surrealism
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
The Man Who Taught Blake Painting in his Dreams (after William Blake)
support: 260 × 206 mm
Bequeathed by Miss Alice G.E. Carthew 1940
<p>
This is a replica of one of Blake'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 figures that appeared to him in visions. <br/>
It has also been proposed that Blake's image might be a 'visionary self-<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>portrait</span></a>', showing the artist himself at the moment of the inspiration. The strange form <br/>
on the forehead may represent flames <br/>
of inspiration. This idea of inspiration, particularly divine inspiration, is central <br/>
to 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/r/romanticism" title="Glossary definition for 'Romanticism'"><span>Romantic</span></a> imagination that Herbert Read saw as the ancestor of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/surrealism" title="Glossary definition for 'Surrealism'"><span>Surrealism</span></a>. <br/>
It also anticipates the Surrealists' interest <br/>
in dream imagery.</p>
Display caption
2004-09-08T00:00:00
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-taught-blake-painting-in-his-dreams-after-william-blake-n05186" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05186</span></a> <b>The Man who taught Blake Painting in his Dreams</b>
<br/></p>
<p>N 05186 / B 755
<br/>Approx. 230×220 (9 1/8×8 5/8) on paper 260×206 (10 1/4×8 1/8)
<br/>Inscribed by John Linnell ‘The Portrait of a Man who instructed M<sup>r</sup>. Blake in Painting &amp; c. in his Dreams’ b.l. and ‘Imagination of a Man who Mr Blake has rec<sup>d</sup> Instruction in Painting &amp; c from’ b.r.
<br/>Bequeathed by Miss Alice G.E. Carthew 1940
<br/>PROVENANCE John Linnell, sold Christie's 15 March 1918 (in 164 with nos.63, 65 and 66) £54.12.0 bt Miss Carthew
<br/>EXHIBITED Paris and Vienna 1937 (14); Port Sunlight 1950(29)</p>
<p>LITERATURE Gilchrist 1863, 1, p.254; Rossetti 1863, p.244 list 2 no.39, and 1880, p.262 list 2 no.64; Keynes <i>Drawings</i> 1927, under no.48; Butlin 1969, p.12; Butlin in Paley and Phillips 1973, pp.296–9, pl.73; Keynes <i>Portraiture</i> 1977, pp.24–5, 131–3, pl.22c; Klonsky 1977, p.122, repr.; Butlin 1981, p.527 no.755, pl.983</p>
<p></p>
<p>Of the two versions of this head in the Tate Gallery one is listed by Rossetti as ‘<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>Portrait</span></a> of a Man who instructed Mr Blake in <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>Painting</span></a>, in his Dreams’, which corresponds more or less to the first title written on 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/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a>. The other version, <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>, is almost certainly a counterproof of the work formerly in the Keynes collection while this drawing is a replica of <span>N05187</span>. Except for the fact that the probable original is in the reverse direction to the other two, the three versions are very close to each other, even to the placing of the individual hairs and lines of shading. The two drawings in the Tate Gallery do not coincide precisely enough to be the result of direct tracing but rather suggest the use of an optical aid to copying such as Cornelius Varley's Graphic Telescope (the portrait drawings done with the Graphic Telescope by both Cornelius and John Varley in the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum show the same deadness of line and shading as the replicas of Blake's Visionary Heads: for a brief account of the Telescope see John Gage, exh. cat., <i>A Decade of English <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/n/naturalism" title="Glossary definition for 'Naturalism'"><span>Naturalism</span></a> 1810–1820</i>, Norwich and Victoria and Albert Museum 1969, pp.16, 40nn. 18, 19, and Butlin 1973, <i>loc. cit.</i>). The two drawings in the Tate Gallery, with their varied inscriptions, were probably try-outs for a projected <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>engraving</span></a> for one of the unpublished parts of John Varley's <i>Trealise on Zodiacal Physiognomy</i>.</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 Blake, William body emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas head / face inspiration man mysticism named individuals people portraits religion and belief self-portraits vision