Graphite and watercolour on paper
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>
Four and Twenty Elders Casting their Crowns before Divine Throne
Presented by the executors of W. Graham Robertson through the Art Fund 1949
actions: postures and motions
adults
animals: fantastic
Apocalypse
Bible: New Testament
cherub
crown
four and twenty elders
God
Judaeo-Christian imagery
kneeling
Last Judgement
man, old
monster
natural phenomena
objects
people
rainbow
religion and belief
religious and ceremonial
Revelation, chapter 4
throne
universal religious imagery
worship
<p>This watercolour illustrates a passage from chapter four of the Revelation of St John the Divine. The prophet describes a vision of a heavenly throne:</p><p>before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal... round about... were four beasts full of eyes... The four and twenty elders fall down before him... and worship him that liveth for ever and ever.</p><p>The Book of Revelation is one of the most dramatic books of the Bible, and Blake was sensitive to its powerful imagery.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
paper unique graphite watercolour
24 March 2003 – 17 November 2003
2003-11-17
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2003-03-24
Blake and Illustration
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
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
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
The Four and Twenty Elders Casting their Crowns before the Divine Throne
support: 354 × 293 mm
Presented by the executors of W. Graham Robertson through the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a> 1949
<div>
    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/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolour</span></a> illustrates a passage from chapter      four of the Revelation of St John  the Divine.      The prophet describes a vision  of a heavenly throne:   </div>
<div>
<br/> </div>
<div>
    before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto      crystal... round      about... were four      beasts full of eyes... The four and twenty elders fall down before him... and worship him that liveth for      ever and ever.
<br/> </div>
<div>
<br/> </div>
<div>
    The Book of Revelation is one of the most dramatic books of the Bible, and Blake was sensitive to its      powerful imagery.  
<br/> </div>

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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-the-four-and-twenty-elders-casting-their-crowns-before-the-divine-throne-n05897" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05897</span></a> <b>The Four and Twenty Elders Casting their Crowns before the Divine Throne</b> <i>c</i>. 1803–5
<br/></p>
<p>N 05897 / B 515
<br/>Pencil and watercolour 354×293 (13 15/16×11 1/2)
<br/>Signed ‘WB inv’ in monogram b.r.
<br/>Presented by the Executors of W. Graham Robertson through the National Art-Collections Fund 1949
<br/>PROVENANCE Thomas Butts; Thomas Butts jun.; Capt. F.J. Butts; his widow, sold April 1906 through Carfax to W. Graham Robertson, offered Christie's 22 July 1949 (48, repr.) £6,720 bought his executors
<br/>EXHIBITED BFAC 1876 (210); Carfax 1904 (19); Carfax 1906 (47); Tate Gallery (34), Manchester (34), Nottingham (22) and Edinburgh (26) 1913–14; BFAC 1927 (31, pl.24); Paris, Antwerp, Zurich and Tate Gallery 1947 (22); Bournemouth, Southampton and Brighton 1949 (39)
<br/>LITERATURE Rossetti 1863, p.202 no.63, and 1880, p.216 no.69; Preston 1952, pp.68–9 no.17, pl. 17; Keynes <i>Bible</i> 1957, p.46 no.160 repr.; Keynes <i>Letters</i> 1968, p.117; Raine 1968, 11, pp.210–11, pl. 177; Bentley <i>Blake Records</i> 1969, pp.571–2; Gage in <i>Warburg Journal</i>, XXXIV, 1971, p.375 n.26a; Mellor 1974, p.197, pl.57; Rosenblum 1975, p.45, pl.50; Bindman 1977; pp.143, 165; Paley 1978, p.56, pl.82; Butlin 1981, p.367 no.515, colour pl.577. <i>Also repr</i>: <i>Mizue</i>, no.816, 1973, ⅔, p.20 in colour
<br/></p>
<p>This is an illustration to Revelation, iv, 2–11. It is listed in Blake's account with Thomas Butts of 3 March 1806, apparently as having been delivered on 12 May 1805. However for stylistic reasons it appears to have been begun rather earlier, say <i>c</i>. 1803; one reason for suggesting this is the less than precise technique and the use 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/g/graphite" title="Glossary definition for 'Graphite'"><span>pencil</span></a> rather than pen as well 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/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolour</span></a>. For a preliminary sketch see <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-sketch-for-the-four-and-twenty-elders-casting-their-crowns-before-the-divine-throne-a00033" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>A00033</span></a>.
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<br/>The old matt, now removed, was inscribed in pencil in the copperplate hand with traces of a title above and text below, and with the reference ‘Rev<sup>ns</sup>: ch:<sup>th</sup>. v. 2<sup>nd</sup> ... [erased] &amp; ...’ b.r. In the roughly contemporary ‘Night the Ninth’ of <i>The Four Zoas</i>, written <i>c.</i>1796–1807, Blake incorporated St. John's vision of the Divine Throne into his own account of the Last Judgment (Keynes <i>Writings</i>
1957, p.364).</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
2004-10-08T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults animals: fantastic Apocalypse Bible: New Testament cherub crown four and twenty elders God Judaeo-Christian imagery kneeling Last Judgement man, old monster natural phenomena objects people rainbow religion and belief religious and ceremonial Revelation, chapter 4 throne universal religious imagery worship