Relief etching on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
Songs of Innocence and of Experience
<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>
Songs Innocence TitlePage
Presented by Mrs John Richmond 1922
actions: postures and motions
adults
Blake, William, ‘Songs of Innocence and of Experience’, 1789
book - non-specific
book, Blake, William, ‘Songs of Innocence and Experience’
child
children
group
groups
leisure and pastimes
literature (not Shakespeare)
literature and fiction
objects
people
reading
reading, writing, printed matter
recreational activities
sitting
tree
woman
<p>This is the title-page from Blake’s illuminated book of poems, Songs of Innocence, which he first printed and published in 1789. Blake composed the verse and designed and printed the pages. He developed a technique for integrating both text and image onto a single etching plate for printing. This reflects his view of the intimate relationship between image and text, each being a comment on the other.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
paper print relief etching
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
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
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
‘Songs of Innocence’: Title-Page
image: 120 × 64 mm

Presented by Mrs John Richmond 1922
<div>
    This is the title-page from Blake’s illuminated      book of poems, Songs of Innocence, which he first printed and published in 1789. Blake composed the verse and designed and printed the pages. He developed a technique for integrating both      text and image onto  a single <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/etching" title="Glossary definition for 'Etching'"><span>etching</span></a> plate for      printing. This reflects his view of the      intimate relationship between image and text,      each being  a comment on the other.  </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-songs-of-innocence-title-page-a00039" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>A00039</span></a> [from] <b><i>Songs of Innocence and of Experience</i>: Miscellaneous Pages</b> 1789 and 1794/1831 or later [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-songs-of-innocence-and-of-experience-infant-sorrow-a00035" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>A00035</span></a>-<span>A00039</span>; complete]
<br/>
<br/><span>A00035</span>- A00039/ -</p>
<p>5 relief etchings, printed in grey
<br/>Presented by Mrs John Richmond 1922
<br/>PROVENANCE ?Mrs Blake; Frederick Tatham; his brother-in-law George Richmond, sold Christie's 29 April 1897 (in 147 with 22 other works; see no.2) £2.10.0 bt Dr Richard Sisley; his daughter Mrs John Richmond
<br/>LITERATURE Keynes <i>Bibliography</i> 1921, pp.114–28; Erdman <i>Illuminated Blake</i> 1974, pp.41–97, book repr.; Bentley <i>Blake Books</i> 1977, pp.364–432 no.139 (Tate works pp.371, 430); Bindman <i>Graphic Works</i>
1978, pp.468–9 nos.40–70, 474 nos.214–69, two books repr.
<br/></p>
<p>Blake published his <i>Songs of Innocence</i> on their own in 1789. In his prospectus <i>To the Public</i> of 10 October 1793 he advertised both <i>Songs of Innocence</i> and, as a separate item, <i>Songs of Experience</i>; however the separate title-page for <i>Songs of Experience</i> is dated 1794 (Keynes <i>Writings</i> 1957, p.208). Most though not all of the existing copies of <i>Songs of Experience</i> are bound up with <i>Songs of Innocence</i> with a joint titlepage reading <i>Songs of Innocence and of Experience Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul</i>; this is undated. In some of these joint copies certain poems originally included in <i>Songs of Innocence</i> are moved to <i>Songs of Experience</i>. Even within the two sets, the order of the poems was frequently altered.
<br/>
<br/><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-songs-of-innocence-and-of-experience-spring-a00037" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>A00037</span></a> is watermarked ‘1831’ and, as all these pages show the same palish grey inking and type 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/p/paper" title="Glossary definition for 'Paper'"><span>paper</span></a>, all were presumably printed after Blake's death in 1827, probably by Frederick Tatham from the plates that Mrs Blake would have brought with her when she went to stay with him in September 1828, though not necessarily before her death on 18 October 1831.
<br/>
<br/>These works were formerly inventoried as nos.3694 vii, viii, vi, v, va and iv respectively.
<br/>
<br/><span>A00039</span> <b><i>Songs of Innocence:</i> Title-Page (second copy)</b> 1789/1831 or later
<br/>
<br/>A 00039/-
<br/>Relief etching, printed in grey 120×64 (4 3/4 × 2 1/4) on paper 245×202 (9 3/4×8 1/8)</p>
<p>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Martin Butlin, <i>William Blake 1757-1827</i>, Tate Gallery Collections, V, London 1990
<br/>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-22T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults Blake, William, ‘Songs of Innocence and of Experience’, 1789 book, Blake, William, ‘Songs of Innocence and Experience’ book - non-specific child children group groups leisure and pastimes literature and fiction literature (not Shakespeare) objects people reading reading, writing, printed matter recreational activities sitting tree woman