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>
Age Teaching Youth
Bequeathed by Miss Alice G.E. Carthew 1940
actions: expressive
actions: postures and motions
adults
architecture
book - non-specific
boy
children
education
education, science and learning
educational and scientific
fence
garden
garden structures
girl
man, old
objects
people
pointing
reading, writing, printed matter
sitting
society
student
teacher
townscapes / man-made features
work and occupations
<p>Blake was intrigued by the states of youth and old age. At first glance, this drawing appears to be an idealised image of education. However, it can also be understood as an allegory. Read in this way, the old man may represent an attempt to pass down restrictive law to the next generation. The child in floral clothes may symbolise a philosophy focused on nature and lacking true inspiration. By contrast, the child pointing upwards may represent an openness to imagination and the divine.</p><p><em>Gallery label, October 2023</em></p>
paper unique ink watercolour
15 October 2001 – 7 July 2002
2002-07-07
15 October 2001 – 7 July 2002
2002-07-07
2001-10-15
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-10-15
William Blake and His Followers
Collection based display
1 November 2011 – 21 October 2012
2012-10-21
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
17 April 2023 – 12 May 2024
2024-05-12
17 April 2023 – 12 May 2024
2024-05-12
2023-04-17
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2023-04-17
Blake
Collection based display
Age Teaching Youth
support: 108 × 80 mm
Bequeathed by Miss Alice G.E. Carthew 1940
<div class="text">
<p>Blake was intrigued by the states of youth and old age. At first glance, this drawing appears to be an idealised image of education. However, it can also be understood as an allegory. Read in this way, the old man may represent an attempt to pass down restrictive law to the next generation. The child in floral clothes may symbolise a philosophy focused on nature and lacking true inspiration. By contrast, the child pointing upwards may represent an openness to imagination and the divine.  </p>
</div>

Display caption
2023-10-26T00:00:00
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-age-teaching-youth-n05183" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05183</span></a> <b>Age Teaching Youth</b> <i>c.</i>1785–90
<br/></p>
<p>N 05183 / B 91
<br/>Pen and watercolour 108×80 (4 1/2×3 1/8)
<br/>Bequeathed by Miss Alice G.E. Carthew 1940
<br/>PROVENANCE ?Mrs Blake;? Frederick Tatham, ?sold Sotheby's 29 April 1862 (? in 185, 2 items ‘in colours’) 15/- bt Harvey; Harvey by 1863; George A. Smith, sold Christie's 16 July 1880 (102) 14/- bt J. Pearson: ? U.S. collection by 1905; Miss Carthew
<br/>EXHIBITED BFAC 1876 (183);? <i>Exhibition of the Works of William Blake</i>, Grolier Club, New York, January–February 1905 (95 as ‘An old man seated teaching a young girl; a youth in gaily coloured raiment seated, in foreground, reading’); Tate Gallery 1978 (39, repr.)
<br/>LITERATURE Rossctti 1863, p.237 no.219, and 1880, p.252 no.249; Binyon 1922, p.22, pl.3; Essick in Paley and Phillips 1973, p.58; Bindman 1977, p.48; Butlin 1981, pp.35–6 no.91, colour pl.179
<br/></p>
<p>This small <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> is close in style and handling to a number of delicate pen and wash <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 the 1780s, some in colour, others 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/m/monochrome" title="Glossary definition for 'Monochrome'"><span>monochrome</span></a>. The works in colour include ‘A Man and a Woman Kneeling and Warming Themselves at a Fire’ in the British Museum, ‘An Enthroned Old Man Offering Two Children to Heaven’ in the Fogg Art Museum and ‘An Old Man and a Woman in Contemplative Adoration’ in a private collection (Butlin 1981, nos.87, 88 and 90, pls.95, 97 and 99). The monochrome works include ‘A Girl and a Bearded Man Embracing’ and ‘An Old Man Appearing on a Cloud to a Young Nude Couple’, both in the British Museum (Butlin nos.85 and 86, pls.91 and 92). Some of these compositions are based on a group of eight rapid pen sketches on the back of the two last-mentioned British Museum drawings, which were originally on a single piece 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> (Butlin 1981, pls.93 and 94). Michael Tolley has suggested that the series of compositions, which seem to concern two protagonists, one male, one female, set out a story of murder, exile and redemption (Michael J. Tolley, ‘Some Blake Puzzles-Old and New’ in <i>Blake Studies</i>, III, 1971, pp.107–28). ‘Age Teaching Youth’ is not however based on one of these <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> sketches and Michael Tolley did not include it in his discussion; but the theme may be connected.
<br/>
<br/>In style this whole group of drawings seems to date from the later 1780s, preceding the series of pen and wash illustrations to <i>Tiriel</i>
of <i>c.</i> 1789 (Butlin no.198, the series repr. Bentley <i>Tiriel</i> 1967); the boy's decorated garment in ‘Age Teaching Youth’ is particularly close to the similar costume in ‘Har Blessing Tiriel’ (Butlin no.198<i>4</i>). In its somewhat Stothard-like mood and delicacy it also anticipates the illustrations to <i>Songs of Innocence</i>, issued by Blake in 1789. In particular the apparently innocent scene of children reading accompanied by an adult is close to that on the title page. Essick however, linking this work more closely to <i>Tiriel</i>, sees the old man as representing the repression and false wisdom later embodied by Blake in his character Urizen; the boy absorbed in the book wears a dress representing Nature uninspired, but the girl points to Heaven as if to contradict the codified knowledge of the books.</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
actions: expressive actions: postures and motions adults architecture book - non-specific boy children education educational and scientific education, science and learning fence garden garden structures girl man, old objects people pointing reading, writing, printed matter sitting society student teacher townscapes / man-made features work and occupations