Ink and watercolour on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
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>
David Delivered out Many Waters
Presented by George Thomas Saul 1878
actions: postures and motions
adults
arm / arms raised
Bible: New Testament
Bible: Old Testament
cherub
Crucifixion
David
floating
flying
Judaeo-Christian imagery
king
man
objects
people
Psalms, 18
redemption
religion and belief
resurrection
rope
royalty and social rank
seascapes and coasts
Seven Eyes of God
tools and machinery
universal religious imagery
wave
work and occupations
<p>This work shows how Blake responded visually to textual sources. It is an illustration to Psalm 18, in which David (at the bottom of the image with his arms stretched wide) calls out to God for salvation from his enemies. Christ appears above, riding upon seven cherubim (angels), not one as in the text. Blake’s gentle, linear style, formal composition and free interpretation of a written source made him attractive to many modern artists. Paul Nash saw Blake as representing a British imaginative tradition.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
paper unique ink watercolour
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
15 February 2006 – 1 May 2006
2006-05-01
15 February 2006 – 1 May 2006
2006-05-01
2006-02-15
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2006-02-15
Gothic Nightmares: Fuseli, Blake and the Romantic Imagination
Exhibition
7 October 2008 – 4 January 2009
2009-01-04
7 October 2008 – 4 January 2009
2009-01-04
2008-10-07
New Art Gallery Walsall (Walsall, UK)
http://www.artatwalsall.org.uk/
2008-10-07
William Blake: Angels and Imagination
Loan-out
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
11 September 2019 – 2 February 2020
2020-02-02
11 September 2019 – 2 February 2020
2020-02-02
2019-09-11
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2019-09-11
William Blake: The Artist
Exhibition
15 November 2021 – 10 April 2022
2022-04-10
15 November 2021 – 10 April 2022
2022-04-10
2021-11-15
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2021-11-15
Poetical Bodies: Works on Paper by Blake and his Contemporaries
Collection based display
David Delivered out of Many Waters
frame: 668 × 565 × 27 mm, 3.6 kg
support: 415 × 348 mm
Presented by George Thomas Saul 1878
<p>This work shows how Blake responded visually to textual sources. It is an illustration to Psalm 18, in which David (at the bottom of the image with his arms stretched wide) calls out to God for salvation from his enemies. Christ appears above, riding upon seven cherubim (angels), not one as in the text. Blake’s gentle, linear style, formal <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> and free interpretation of a written source made him attractive 
to many modern artists. Paul Nash saw Blake as representing a British imaginative tradition. 
</p>
Display caption
2004-08-18T00:00:00
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-david-delivered-out-of-many-waters-n02230" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N02230</span></a> <b>David Delivered out of Many Waters: ‘He Rode upon the Cherubim’</b> <i>c.</i>1805
<br/></p>
<p>N 02230 / B 462
<br/>Pen and watercolour 415×348 (16 3/4×13 13/16)
<br/>Signed ‘WB’ b.l.
<br/>Presented to the National Gallery by George Thomas Saul 1878; transferred to the Tate Gallery 1909
<br/>PROVENANCE Thomas Butts; Thomas Butts jun., sold Foster's 29 June 1853 (121) £1.2.0 bought Money; G.T. Saul by 1876
<br/>EXHIBITED BFAC 1876 (97); Tate Gallery (12), Manchester (12), Nottingham (9) and Edinburgh (11) 1913–14; <i>British Painting</i> Hamburg, Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen 1949–50 (6); Port Sunlight 1950 (4); <i>English Water-Colours</i> Norwich 1955 (28)
<br/>LITERATURE Rossetti 1863, p.255 list 3 no.1, and 1880, p.237 no.153 and p.275 list 3 no.2; Graham Robertson in Gilchrist 1907, p.491 no.3; Digby 1957, p.43, pl.42; Keynes <i>Bible</i> 1957, p.22 no.75 repr.; Blunt 1959, p.71; Damon 1965, p.98; Raine 1968, 11, pp.21–3, pl.130; Taylor in <i>Blake Studies</i>, 1, 1968–9, pp.78–83, repr. p.81; Grant in <i>Blake Studies</i>, 1, 1968–9, pp.200–1; Butlin in <i>Blake Studies</i>, 1, 1968–9, p.212; Wark <i>Ten British Pictures</i> 1971, p.88, pl.68; Tolley in <i>Blake Newsletter</i>, VI, 1972–3, pp.29–30; Bindman 1977, pp.141–2, pl.113; Butlin 1981, p.347 no.462, pl.552; Raine 1982, p.26 and at pl.26, repr.; Essick in <i>Blake</i>, XVI, 1982–3, p.44; Warner 1984, pp.95–6
<br/></p>
<p>This is an illustration to Psalms, xviii, 4, 10, 16. However, Blake multiplies the single cherub of the text as given in the Authorised Version; it is interesting that when 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/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolour</span></a> was sold at Foster's in 1853 it was entitled ‘He rode upon the Cherubim’ in the plural, perhaps reflecting the lost title in the copperplate hand (see headnote to this section). Blake shows cherubim of four distinct ages, that in the middle being sometimes identified as David as a young man. They are, as Michael Tolley has pointed out, the Seven Eyes of God, who, acting in concert with Christ, represent the ideal form of redemption. At the bottom of 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/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> David appears again as an older man, being delivered from the waters, bound in the attitude of the Crucified and looking up towards the figure of Christ with similarly outstretched arms; by this Blake makes plain the psalmist's foreshadowing of Man's salvation through Christ. The ropes by which David are bound are not in the main text of the King James translation of the Bible but are the alternative (and more correct) translation from the original Hebrew given in the margin, which reads ‘The cords of death’ instead of the Authorised Version's ‘sorrows’ (verse 4).<br/><br/>William Rossetti's first mention of this watercolour, in his 1863 ‘List No.3. Works of Unascertained Method’ (presumably works he had not managed to see), was under the title used in the 1853 Foster's sale catalogue. In 1880, by which time he must have seen the work, he inserted it in his main ‘List No.1’ as ‘David delivered out of Many Waters. - Psalm xviii. 16’, while retaining his previous listing in List 3.
<br/>
<br/>For a copy of this work in the Tate Gallery see the next item.</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
2004-09-23T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults arm / arms raised Bible: New Testament Bible: Old Testament cherub Crucifixion David floating flying Judaeo-Christian imagery king man objects people Psalms, 18 redemption religion and belief resurrection rope royalty and social rank seascapes and coasts Seven Eyes of God tools and machinery universal religious imagery wave work and occupations