Ink on paper. verso: graphite 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>
St Christopher Copy an Engraving VersoPart a Face Copy a Plaster Cast a Daughter Niobe
Presented by Mrs John Richmond 1922
actions: postures and motions
adults
Charon
classical myths: gods and heroes
cloak
clothing and personal items
man
objects
Orion
people
religion and belief
staff
walking
<p>From about July 1779 Blake was a probationer in the Royal Academy Schools, hoping to become a student there. He would have made drawings from casts of classical sculptures, such as the one shown in room 7.</p><p>Blake’s drawing skills clearly met the Academicians’ standards and he became a student in October 1779. This drawing seems to be taken from one of the Academy’s casts of figures from the ancient Greek sculptures known as the Niobe Group. Its careful rendering of light and shade is in the style expected of Academy students at the time.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2004</em></p>
paper unique ink graphite
24 November 2003 – 22 November 2004
2004-11-22
10 November 2003
2003-11-10
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2003-11-24
William Blake the Painter at Work
Collection based display
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
St Christopher, Copy from an Engraving? Verso:Part of a Face: Copy from a Plaster Cast: a Daughter of Niobe?
support: 435 × 338 mm
frame: 497 × 605 × 20 mm
Presented by Mrs John Richmond 1922
<div class="pbodytext">
<span class="text0">From about July 1779 Blake was a </span><span class="text14">probationer in the Royal Academy</span><span class="text0"> </span><span class="text13">Schools, hoping to become a student there. He would have      made <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> </span><span class="text14">from casts 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/c/classicism" title="Glossary definition for 'Classicism'"><span>classical</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/s/sculpture" title="Glossary definition for 'Sculpture'"><span>sculptures</span></a>,  such as the one shown in room 7.</span><span class="text0">
<br/>
</span>
</div>
<div class="para10">
<span class="text0">
<br/> </span>
</div>
<div class="pbodytext">
<span class="text0">Blake’s drawing skills clearly met the </span><span class="text13">Academicians’ standards and he became  a student in      October 1779. This drawing</span><span class="text0"> </span><span class="text14">seems to be taken from one of the Academy’s casts of figures      from the ancient Greek sculptures known as </span><span class="text0">
the      Niobe Group. Its careful rendering  </span><span class="text13">of light      and shade is in the style expected </span><span class="text0">of Academy      students at the time. </span>
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2004-09-09T00:00:00
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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-st-christopher-copy-from-an-engraving-verso-part-of-a-face-copy-from-a-plaster-cast-a00045" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>A00045</span></a> <b>Charon, Copy from the Antique?</b> <i>c.</i>1779–80(?) (recto)
<br/><b>Part of a Face, Copy from the Antique?</b>
<i>c.</i>1779–80(?) (verso)
<br/></p>
<p>A 00045 / B 178
<br/>Recto: pen approx. 395×260 (15 1/2×10 1/4); Verso: pencil approx. 110×145 (4 1/4×5 3/4); on paper 435×338 (17 1/8×13 5/16)
<br/>Inscribed on recto by Frederick Tatham, ‘Charon by William Blake copied from something else not designed by him Fred<sup>k</sup>
Tatham’ b.r.
<br/>Presented by Mrs John Richmond 1922
<br/>PROVENANCE Mrs Blake; Frederick Tatham; his brother-in-law George Richmond, sold Christic's 29 April 1897 (in 147, with nos.7, 9, 10, 15–20, 43, 50, 53–5, 107, 151, 166–9, 171 and 172) £2.10.0 bt ‘Dr. Cicely’ (Dr Richard Sisley); his daughter, Mrs John Richmond
<br/>LITERATURE Keynes <i>Drawings</i> 1970, no.82, recto repr.; Bindman 1977, pp.19, 228–9 n.5; Butlin 1981, pp.67–8 no.178, pl.251; Mary Lynn Johnson, ‘Observations on Blake's Paintings and Drawings’, in <i>Blake</i>, XVI, 1982–3, p.6
<br/></p>
<p>Blake did a number of copies after the Antique for <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>engravings</span></a> (see Russell <i>Engravings</i> 1912, pl.161–2, 166, 180–1) but no antique protypes or dependent engravings have been discovered that relate 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/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a> on this sheet. However, Mary Lynn Johnson reports seeing at the gallery of Rafael Valls in London in 1977 a large finished <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> drawing from what seems to have been the same original as that shown on 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/recto-verso" title="Glossary definition for 'Recto / Verso'"><span>recto</span></a>; ‘the head, eyes, beard, staff, and general expression are too similar to be coincidental’. The figure on the Tate Gallery drawing is shown as being cut off at the bottom by what may be the decorated edge of a boat, assuming that Charon is portrayed, or the surface of water, in which case he is not. Mary Lynn Johnson, who is also suspicious of the identification with Charon, gives one piece of supporting evidence, however, 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/pen-and-ink" title="Glossary definition for 'Pen and Ink'"><span>pen and ink</span></a> drawing by George Romney of ‘Psyche being rowed across the Styx’ in the Fitzwilliam Museum (repr. Essick and Pearce 1978, pl.171), in which the general pose, the staff and the billowing of the cape of Charon are similar to those in the Tate drawing. The blank eyes support the suggestion that the drawing was made from an antique <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/sculpture" title="Glossary definition for 'Sculpture'"><span>sculpture</span></a>; on the other hand, it is just possible that the blind Orion may be the subject.
<br/>
<br/>The verso also shows a detail from what appears to be a carved head with blank eyes, probably also copied from an antique sculpture.
<br/>
<br/>The dating adopted here corresponds with the time that Blake might have copied from the Antique as a student at the Royal <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/academy" title="Glossary definition for 'Academy'"><span>Academy</span></a>. However, he continued to do copies of the Antique later in his life, including the famous occasion when he went 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/c/cast" title="Glossary definition for 'Cast'"><span>cast</span></a> rooms of the Royal Academy Schools to copy the Laocoön in 1815 (see Butlin 1981, no.679, pl.898A).
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<br/>This work was formerly inventoried as no.3694 xviii.</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
2004-09-22T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults Charon classical myths: gods and heroes cloak clothing and personal items man objects Orion people religion and belief staff walking