Ink 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>
Crucifixion Behold Thy Mother
Presented by the executors of W. Graham Robertson through the Art Fund 1949
actions: expressive
adults
Bible: New Testament
Christ
clothing and personal items
cross
crowd
Crucifixion
family
groups
inscriptions
John, chapter 19
Latin text
male
man
mother
nudes
objects
Passion
people
prayer
religion and belief
religious and ceremonial
Saints
society
son
St John the Evangelist
storm
symbols and personifications
universal religious imagery
veil
Virgin Mary
weather
weeping
woman
<p>In this sombre watercolour Blake depicts a biblical scene from the New Testament. Christ commends his mother Mary to the care of his favourite disciple John. They both look up towards the cross, while the other figures weep in despair. This watercolour belongs to a larger series of biblical subjects Blake painted for his patron Thomas Butts. The dark, almost monochromatic colouring, stark symmetry and upright format are characteristic of Blake’s other representations of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. The elongated forms and crisp drapery reflect the influence of medieval sculpture.</p><p><em>Gallery label, June 2024</em></p>
paper unique ink watercolour
8 July 2002 – 1 October 2003
2003-10-01
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-07-08
William Blake Body and Soul
Collection based display
8 July 2002 – 16 March 2003
2003-03-16
8 July 2002 – 16 March 2003
2003-03-16
2002-07-08
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-07-08
Body and Soul
Collection based display
23 October 2003 – 18 January 2004
2004-01-18
23 October 2003 – 18 January 2004
2004-01-18
2003-10-23
Hayward Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.hayward-gallery.org.uk
2003-10-23
National Art Collections Fund: Centenary Exhibition 2003
Loan-out
6 December 2004 – 15 August 2005
2005-08-15
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2004-12-06
Blake and Jerusalem
Collection based display
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
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
24 June 2024
24 June 2024
2024-06-24
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2024-06-24
Blake
Collection based display
The Crucifixion: ‘Behold Thy Mother’
support: 413 × 300 mm
frame: 665 × 552 × 41 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><p><span>In this sombre watercolour Blake depicts a biblical scene from the New Testament. Christ commends his mother Mary to the care of his favourite disciple John. They both look up towards the cross, while the other figures weep in despair. This watercolour belongs to a larger series of biblical subjects Blake painted for his patron Thomas Butts. The dark, almost monochromatic colouring, stark symmetry and upright format are characteristic of Blake’s other representations of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. The elongated forms and crisp drapery reflect the influence of medieval sculpture.</span></p></div>
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2024-06-06T00:00:00
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-crucifixion-behold-thy-mother-n05895" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05895</span></a> <b>The Crucifixion: ‘Behold Thy Mother’</b>
<i>c.</i>1805
<br/></p>
<p>N 05895 / B 497
<br/>Pen and watercolour 413×300 (16 3/4×11 3/8)
<br/><i>Signed</i> ‘WB inv’ in monogram b.l.
<br/>Presented by the Executors of W. Graham Robertson through the National Art-Collections Fund 1949
<br/>PROVENANCE Thomas Butts; Thomas Butts jun., offered Foster's 29 June 1853 (in 124 with no.48, as ‘The Crucifixion’) £1.10.0 bt in Thomas, and Foster's 8 March 1854 (in 14 with nos.44 and 48 as ‘The Crucifixion’) 10/- bt in; capt. F.J. Butts; his widow, sold April 1906 through Carfax to W. Graham Robertson, offered Christie's 22 July 1949 (34, repr.) £1,155 bt his executors
<br/>EXHIBITED BFAC 1876 (71); Carfax 1906 (43); Tate Gallery (27) and Manchester (29) 1913–14; BFAC 1927 (24, pl.19); Paris, Antwerp, Zurich and Tate Gallery 1947 (16); Bournemouth, Southampton and Brighton 1949 (37); Tate Gallery 1978 (178, repr.)
<br/>LITERATURE Rossetti 1863, p.228 no.157, and 1880, p.240 no.181; Preston 1952, pp.62–3 no.14, pl.14; Keynes <i>Bible</i> 1957, p.42 no.141 repr.; Butlin 1981, pp.360–1 no.497, pl.600; Warner 1984, pp.88–91
<br/></p>
<p>This is an illustration to John, xix, 26–7; the old matt bore slight traces of an inscription in a copperplate hand. Christ commends the Virgin to the care of his favourite disciple, St John. The title used by William Rossetti, ‘Christ taking leave of His Mother’, is misleading in that this usually refers to the incident earlier in Christ's life when He first leaves home.
<br/>
<br/>David Bindman has pointed out 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> seems to belong to a distinct sub-group within the large series of Biblical watercolours painted for Thomas Butts. Similar in their size and upright format, near-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> and dark near-<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>monochromatic</span></a> colouring, they are all of subjects associated with the Crucifixion and Resurrection. Other examples include ‘The Entombment’ (<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-entombment-n05896" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05896</span></a>), ‘Christ in the Sepulchre, Guarded by Angels’ and ‘The Angel Rolling the Stone from the Sepulchre’ in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Butlin 1981, nos.500 and 501, pl.603 and colour pl.572), ‘The Resurrection’ in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Mass. (Butlin no.502, colour pl.573) and ‘The Magdalene at the Sepulchre’ in the Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven, Conn. (Butlin no.504, pl.604). ‘The Raising of Lazarus’ (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-raising-of-lazarus-n05199" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05199</span></a>), a prefiguration of the Resurrection, may also be one of this group. For further works rather more doubtfully identified with this group see Butlin, <i>loc. cit.</i></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: expressive adults Bible: New Testament Christ clothing and personal items cross crowd Crucifixion family groups inscriptions John, chapter 19 Latin text male man mother nudes objects Passion people prayer religion and belief religious and ceremonial Saints society son St John the Evangelist storm symbols and personifications universal religious imagery veil Virgin Mary weather weeping woman