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>
Death Virgin
Presented by the executors of W. Graham Robertson through the Art Fund 1949
actions: postures and motions
adults
angel
architecture
Bible: New Testament
birth to death
carpet
death
features
furnishings
halo
Judaeo-Christian imagery
kneeling
Last Judgement
Last Judgement - rainbow
lying down
man
natural phenomena
objects
people
prayer
rainbow
religion and belief
religious
society
stair / step
symbols and personifications
universal religious imagery
Virgin Mary
woman
<p>This is one of many watercolours Blake made for his most important patron, Thomas Butts. It was painted during Blake's stay in Felpham, Sussex when, in his own words, he put himself 'back as if I was a learner' and gave 'two years to the intense study of... light &amp; shade &amp; colour.' By comparing this work with the earlier temperas Blake painted for Butts, some of which are shown in this room, we can get an idea of the improvements Blake was aiming at in his art: a renewed power of design (seen in the symmetrical composition with its energetic, flowing outlines), dark shadows rejected in favour of more uniformity between light and shade, and greater radiance in his colours.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
paper unique watercolour
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)
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
1 September 2016 – 30 April 2017
2017-04-30
1 September 2016 – 30 April 2017
2017-04-30
2016-09-01
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2016-09-01
Tracey Emin & William Blake in Focus
Collection based display
The Death of the Virgin
support: 378 × 371 mm
frame: 659 × 632 × 45 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
<p>This is one of many <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>watercolours</span></a> Blake made  for his most important patron, Thomas Butts.  It was painted during Blake's stay in Felpham, Sussex when, in his own words, he put himself 'back as if I was a learner' and gave 'two years  to the intense study of... light &amp; shade &amp; colour.'  By comparing this work with the earlier <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/t/tempera" title="Glossary definition for 'Tempera'"><span>temperas</span></a> Blake painted for Butts, some of which are  shown in this room, we can get an idea of  the improvements Blake was aiming at in his  art: a renewed power of design (seen in the  symmetrical <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> with its energetic,  flowing outlines), dark shadows rejected  in favour of more uniformity between light  and shade, and greater radiance in his colours.</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-the-death-of-the-virgin-n05899" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05899</span></a> <b>The Death of the Virgin</b> 1803
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<br/>N 05899 / B 512
<br/>Watercolour 378×371 (14 7/8×14 5/8)</p>
<p>Signed ‘WB inv [in monogram] 1803’ 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 (42) £1,050 bt his executors
<br/>EXHIBITED BFAC 1876 (216); Carfax 1906 (46); Cambridge 1910; <i>Century of Art</i>, Grafton Galleries 1911 (126); Tate Gallery (37), Manchester (38), Nottingham (27) and Edinburgh (23) 1913–14; on loan to Tate Gallery 1923–7; BFAC 1927 (35); <i>English Water-Colour Paintings</i>, Institute of Art Research, Ueno, Tokyo, October 1929 (pl.21); Whitechapel 1934 (57); Paris, Antwerp, Zurich and Tate Gallery 1947 (24); Bournemouth, Southampton and Brighton 1949 (34); Whitworth 1969 (38, repr.)
<br/>LITERATURE Rossetti 1863, p.206 no.42, and 1880, p.213 no.46; Preston 1952, pp.66–7 no.16, pl.16; Keynes <i>Bible</i> 1957, p.50 no.173 repr.; Keynes <i>Writings</i> 1957, p.824; Keynes <i>Letters</i> 1968, p.68; Raine 1968, 1, p.413 n.37; Bentley <i>Blake Records</i> 1969, pp.570–1; Gage in <i>Warburg Journal</i>, XXXIV, 1971, p.375; Mellor 1974, pp.193–4, pl.55; Bindman 1977, pp.137–8; Butlin 1981, p.366 no.512, pl.611
<br/></p>
<p>Blake, in a letter to Thomas Butts of 6 July 1803, wrote that 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> and six others were ‘now on Stocks... They are all in great forwardness and I am satisfied that I improve very much &amp; shall continue to do so while I live’. One of the other works mentioned in this letter is the companion watercolour of ‘The Death of St. Joseph’, also signed and dated 1803 (Butlin 1981, no.511, pl.610). On 16 August 1803 Blake sent Butts these two <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> together with five others, presumably the same as those listed in the letter of 6 July.
<br/>
<br/>According to William Rossetti ‘The Death of the Virgin’ was inscribed ‘Then saith He to the Disciple, “Behold thy Mother!” and from that hour that Disciple took her unto his own home’ (John, xix, 27; 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-the-crucifixion-behold-thy-mother-n05895" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05895</span></a>), while ‘The Death of St. Joseph’ was inscribed ‘Into Thine hand I commend my spirit; Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of Truth’ (partly taken from Luke, xxiii, 46). No such inscriptions can be seen today but they may have been the usual copperplate inscriptions on the mounts.
<br/>
<br/>Kathleen Raine has suggested that Blake took the symbolism of the rainbow in the two companion watercolours from Jacob Boehme's <i>Mysterium Magnum</i> (ch. 33, paras. 28–31) as ‘a Figure of the last Judgment, showing how the inward spiritual World will again manifest itself and swallow up into itself this outward World of four elements’. In this connection John Gage's suggestion that Blake deliberately reversed the Newtonian order of the colours of the rainbow in his works of 1804 onwards may perhaps be significant.</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 angel architecture Bible: New Testament birth to death carpet death features furnishings halo Judaeo-Christian imagery kneeling Last Judgement Last Judgement - rainbow lying down man natural phenomena objects people prayer rainbow religion and belief religious society stair / step symbols and personifications universal religious imagery Virgin Mary woman