Relief etching, ink and watercolour on paper
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<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>
God Judging Adam
Presented by W. Graham Robertson 1939
actions: expressive
actions: postures and motions
Adam
adults
animals: mammals
beard
bending forward
Bible: Old Testament
body
book - non-specific
chariot
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
fire
God
horse
Judaeo-Christian imagery
male
man
natural phenomena
nudes
objects
people
pointing
reading, writing, printed matter
religion and belief
shame
society
transport: land
<p>This is a hand-finished relief etching, printed on paper from a copper plate. The broken texture visible along the light grey outline of God's right arm was produced as the printing plate was lifted off the paper.</p><p>Blake's figure of God resembles Urizen, a tyrannical law-maker in Blake's own mythology. God holds his sceptre in his right hand here but, because images are reversed during printing, Blake would have had to show it in God's left hand on the copper printing plate.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2004</em></p>
paper unique relief etching 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
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
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
18 October 2008 – 5 April 2009
2009-04-05
18 October 2008 – 19 April 2009
2009-04-19
2008-10-18
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2008-10-18
Blake and Collins
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
20 April 2015 – 7 May 2017
2017-05-07
20 April 2015 – 7 May 2017
2017-05-07
2015-04-20
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2015-04-20
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
8 June 2021 – 14 January 2024
2024-01-14
8 July 2021 – 14 November 2021
2021-11-14
2021-07-08
Museum of Art Pudong (Shanghai, China)
20 December 2021 – 8 May 2022
2022-05-08
2021-12-20
Buk-Seoul Museum of Art (Seoul, South Korea)
25 February 2023 – 25 June 2023
2023-06-25
2023-02-25
Auckland Art Gallery (Auckland, New Zealand)
12 July 2023 – 2 October 2023
2023-10-02
2023-07-12
National Art Center (Tokyo, Japan)
26 October 2023 – 14 January 2024
2024-01-14
2023-10-26
Nakanoshima Museum of Art (Osaka, Japan)
2021-06-08
Light
Tate partnerships & programmes
God Judging Adam
support: 432 × 535 mm
frame: 638 × 738 × 48 mm
Presented by W. Graham Robertson 1939
<div class="pbodytext">
<span class="text0">This is a hand-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/r/relief" title="Glossary definition for 'Relief'"><span>relief</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/e/etching" title="Glossary definition for 'Etching'"><span>etching</span></a>, printed on      <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> from a copper plate. The broken texture visible along the  light grey      outline of God's right arm  was produced as the printing plate  was lifted      off the paper. </span>
</div>
<div class="pbodytext">
<span class="text0">
<br/> </span>
</div>
<div class="pbodytext">
<span class="text0">Blake's figure of God resembles Urizen,  a tyrannical      law-maker in Blake's own mythology. God holds his sceptre in his right hand      here but, because images  </span><span class="text14">are reversed during      printing, Blake </span><span class="text13">would have had to show it in      God's left </span><span class="text0">hand on the copper printing plate.  </span>
</div>

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2004-09-09T00:00:00
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-god-judging-adam-n05063" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05063</span></a> <b>God Judging Adam</b> 1795
<br/>
<br/>N 05063 / B 294
<br/>Colour-printed relief etching finished in ink and watercolour 432×535 (17 × 21 1/8) on paper approx. 545 × 770 (21 1/2 × 30 1/4)</p>
<p>Signed ‘WB inv [in monogram] 1795’ b.l. and inscribed ‘God speaking to Adam’ below design
<br/>Presented by W. Graham Robertson 1939
<br/>PROVENANCE Thomas Butts; Thomas Butts jun.; Capt. F.J. Butts; his widow, sold through Carfax April 1906 to W. Graham Robertson
<br/>EXHIBITED Carfax 1906 (27); <i>Century of Art</i> Grafton Galleries 1911 (60); Tate Gallery 1913 (14); on loan to the Tate Gallery 1920–7; BFAC 1927 (8, repr. p.8); <i>British Art</i> RA 1934 (781, repr. in 2nd ed. pl. 87; 702); Whitechapel 1934 (48); <i>British Painting</i> Paris 1938 (158); <i>Wartime Acquisitions</i> National Gallery 1942 (15); Tate Gallery 1947 (54) (all above as ‘Elijah’); Tate Gallery 1978 (87, repr.)
<br/>LITERATURE Rossetti 1863, p.203 under no.21, p. 208 no.66, and 1880, p.210 under no.23, p.216 no.72; Robertson in Gilchrist 1907, p.411, repr. facing p.140; Preston 1952, pp. 34–6 no.3, pl.3; Digby 1957, p.66, pl.62; Keynes <i>Bible</i> 1957, p.2 no.13, p.18 no.65a repr.; Butlin in <i>Burlington Magazine</i>, c, 1958, p.42; Blunt 1959, p.61, pl.28b; Martin Butlin ‘Blake's “God Judging Adam” Rediscovered’, in <i>Burlington Magazine</i>, CVII, 1965, pp.86–9, fig.43 (reprinted in Essick 1973, pp.303–10, pl. 103); Keynes <i>Letters</i> 1968, p.118; Beer 1969, p.XV; Bentley <i>Blake Records</i> 1969, p.572; Kostelanetz in Rosenfeld 1969, p.125, pl.3; Tolley in <i>Blake Newsletter</i>, VI, 1972–3, pp.28–9; Mellor 1974, pp.153–5, pl.40; Bindman 1977, pp.98–9; Klonsky 1977, p.58, repr. in colour; Paley 1978, p.37; Butlin in <i>Blake</i>, XIII, 1978–80, p.16; Essick <i>Printmaker</i> 1980, p.132; La Belle in <i>Blake</i>, XIV, 1980–1, p.72, pl.7; Butlin 1981, pp.160–1, colour pl. 390; Bindman in <i>Blake</i>, XVI, 1982–3, p.224; Essick in <i>Blake</i>, XVI, 1982–3, pp.32–3; Robert N. Essick, ‘A Supplement to <i>The Separate Plates of William Blake: A Catalogue</i>, in <i>Blake</i>, XVII, 1983–4, p.139; Boime 1987, pp.357–60, pl.4.52. <i>Also repr: Mizue</i>, no.816, 1973, ⅔, p.34 in colour: <i>Mizue</i>, no.882, 1978, 9, p.18 in colour
<br/></p>
<p>Listed in Blake's account with Butts of 3 March 1806 as ‘God Judging Adam’ with ‘Judging’ replacing the deleted word ‘Creating’ (‘God Creating Adam’ was listed separately below; 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-elohim-creating-adam-n05055" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05055</span></a>); ‘God Judging’ was apparently delivered to Butts on 5 July 1805. There are two other pulls of the subject, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Butlin 1981, no.295, pl.385) and the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Butlin no.296, pl. 386). The first pull seems to be that in the Metropolitan Museum, the second that in the Tate, and the third at Philadelphia which may have been finished off 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/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolour</span></a> by another hand (see Essick in <i>Blake</i> XVI, 1982–3, p.36, repr.; my own view, because of the correspondence of the colouring to the related lines in <i>Urizen</i> (see below), is that the somewhat odd appearance of the Philadelphia version may be the result of time). The first two pulls, if not the third, appear for stylistic reasons to date from about 1795; in this design, the only example in which the outline seems to have been <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>etched</span></a> 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/r/relief" title="Glossary definition for 'Relief'"><span>relief</span></a>, the initial printing of the first two pulls is in dark grey, and in the third an orange-brown. In addition to the three copies of the colour <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/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>print</span></a> there is an earlier version of 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/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> in watercolour in the collection of George Goyder (Butlin no.258, colour pl.198).
<br/>
<br/>Until 1965 this design was known as ‘Elijah in the Fiery Chariot’, with Elisha standing before him. This identification seems to have originated in the middle of the nineteenth century: the catalogue of the sale of works from Frederick Tatham's collection held at Sotheby's on 29 April 1862 included the version now at Philadelphia as lot 189, ‘Elijah about to ascend in his Chariot’, and Rossetti's lists, published the following year, included the New York version as ‘Elijah mounted in the Fiery Chariot’ (1863, p.203 no.21, and 1880, pp.209–10 no.23). Rossetti also lists ‘God Judging Adam’ but merely gives the ownership as ‘From Mr Butts’ with a reference to the Butts account, showing that he had not seen the actual work (1863, p.208 no.66, and 1880, p.216 no.72). In addition he lists (1863, p.232 no.203, starred as of considerable size, no owner listed, and 1880, p.245 no.228) a ‘Judgment. <i>Colour-printed</i>. Presumed to be a “<i>Last</i> Judgment”; or, possibly, the “Judgment of Paris”?’, which may also be a faint echo of the same print though there is a watercolour of ‘The Judgment of Paris’ of 1811 (?) in the British Museum (Butlin no.675, colour pl.964). The discovery of the faintly pencilled title previously hidden under the mount of no.26 has established the connection with the hither to unaccounted-for ‘God Judging Adam’ of the Butts account; no ‘Elijah’ was known from early records, though not all the large prints from the Butts collection are listed in the accounts (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-pity-n05062" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05062</span></a> and <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-night-of-enitharmons-joy-formerly-called-hecate-n05056" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05056</span></a>).
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<br/>Like ‘Elohim Creating Adam’, this design reflects Blake's negative attitude to the God of the Old Testament in the mid 1790s, when his thought was at its most pessimistic. The stern embodiment of unyielding justice imposes his law on the stooping figure of Adam, who is shown transformed into God's own Urizen-like image. Much of the imagery of the design, and in particular the book on God's lap and the flames, which in the Philadelphia design burn darkly against a black sky, is paralleled in the verses of <i>Urizen</i> of the year before, 1794, in which Urizen is heard declaiming the laws of ‘the Book Of eternal brass... One command, one joy, one desire,... One King, one God, one Law’, upon which appear ‘All the seven deadly sins of the soul ... In the flames of eternal fury ... But no light from the fires: all was darkness In the flames of Eternal fury’ (Keynes <i>Writings</i> 1957, pp.224–5). The last line is on a page (plate 5) headed by an illustration showing Urizen surrounded by flames and holding the book of eternal brass, different in composition but similar in imagery to ‘God Judging Adam’. Urizen is described with ‘his chariot of fire’ in <i>Vala</i> or <i>The Four Zoas</i>, written <i>c.</i>
1796 onwards (Keynes <i>Writings</i> 1957, p.273). The design seems, in its depiction of the perverted energy of fire, to be the companion to ‘The Good and Evil Angels’ (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-good-and-evil-angels-n05057" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05057</span></a>): the two compositions condemn on the one hand the sameness imposed by Jehovah-Urizen's imposition of a single law and on the other the frustration of vital energy resulting from the opposition of the two angels, both being the result of the division of Man in the fallen world.
<br/>
<br/>Boime makes an interesting comparison between the composition of this print and the combination of round wheels and straight driving arms in such machines as James Watt's double-acting rotative engine (an example of which was used in, perhaps significantly, the Albion Mills Company's flour mill) and Robert Fulton's adaptation of such a machine for use in a steam boat (both repr. Boime 1987, pls.4.53 and 4.54).
<br/>
<br/>There is another interesting parallel, with the composition of George Stubbs's ‘Fall of Phaeton’ (version repr. Constance Anne Parker <i>Mr Stubbs the Horse Painter</i> 1971, p.31, and Basil Taylor <i>Stubbs</i> 1971, pls.94–5). A version of this may well have been known to Blake and the design could have been interpreted by him as representing the consequences of the Orc-like Phaeton letting his energies run away with him. ‘God Judging Adam’ shows the reverse; everything is static and dead.</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
2004-10-06T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: expressive actions: postures and motions Adam adults animals: mammals beard bending forward Bible: Old Testament body book - non-specific chariot emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas fire God horse Judaeo-Christian imagery male man natural phenomena nudes objects people pointing reading, writing, printed matter religion and belief shame society transport: land