Graphite on paper
Tate Collection
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after <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>
Man Who Taught Blake Painting in his Dreams counterproof
Bequeathed by Miss Alice G.E. Carthew 1940
adults
artist, painter
arts and entertainment
Blake, William
body
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
head / face
inspiration
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<p>The title of this image suggests that it may be a type of visionary self-portrait. The marks on the forehead are reminiscent of phrenological divisions, and seem to correspond to areas associated with observation and intuition, among others.</p><p>This picture is thought to belong to the series of visionary heads Blake produced for John Varley (see <i>Head of the Ghost of a Flea</i> and the showcase, both nearby). James Deville, who made a cast of Blake’s head, also studied Varley, declaring that the astrologer ‘believed nearly all he heard, and all he read’.</p><p><em>Gallery label, March 2011</em></p>
paper unique graphite
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 March 2003 – 9 January 2005
2005-01-09
2 April 2003 – 31 May 2003
2003-05-31
2003-04-02
Drawing Center (New York, USA)
18 June 2003 – 24 August 2003
2003-08-24
2003-06-18
Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney, Australia)
26 September 2003 – 28 March 2004
2004-03-28
2003-09-26
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
29 September 2004 – 9 January 2005
2005-01-09
2004-09-29
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2003-03-01
The Stage of Drawing: Gesture and Act Selected from the Tate Collection
Tate partnerships & programmes
1 April 2006 – 16 April 2007
2007-04-16
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2006-04-01
Blake in the 1940s
Collection based display
6 August 2010 – 9 April 2012
2012-04-09
6 August 2010 – 9 April 2012
2012-04-09
2010-08-06
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2010-08-06
Romanticism Introduction
Collection based display
The Man Who Taught Blake Painting in his Dreams (counterproof)
support: 296 × 235 mm
Bequeathed by Miss Alice G.E. Carthew 1940
<p>The title of this image suggests that it may be a type of visionary self-portrait. The marks on the forehead are reminiscent of phrenological divisions, and seem to correspond to areas associated with observation and intuition, among others. 
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<br/>This picture is thought to belong to the series of visionary heads Blake produced for John Varley (see <i>Head of the Ghost of a Flea</i> and the showcase, both nearby). James Deville, who made a cast of Blake’s head, also studied Varley, declaring that the astrologer ‘believed nearly all he heard, and all he read’. 
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Display caption
2011-03-18T00:00:00
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-man-who-taught-blake-painting-in-his-dreams-counterproof-n05187" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05187</span></a> <b>The Man who Taught Blake Painting in his Dreams</b>
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<p>N 05187 / B 754
<br/>Approx. 240×230 (9 3/8×9) on paper 296×235 (11 5/8×9 1/4)
<br/>Inscribed by John Linnell ‘Imagination of A man who Mr Blake has rec<sup>d</sup> instruct[ion] &amp; c from’ b.r.
<br/>Bequeathed by Miss Alice G.E. Carthew 1940
<br/>PROVENANCE John Linnell, sold Christie's 15 March 1918 (in 164 with nos.63, 65 and 67) £54.12.0 bt Miss Carthew
<br/>LITERATURE Keynes <i>Drawings</i> 1927, no.48 repr.; Butlin 1969, p.12; Keynes <i>Drawings</i> 1970, no.63 repr.; Butlin in Paley and Phillips 1973, pp.296–9, pl.72; Keynes <i>Portraiture</i> 1977, pp.24–5, 131–3, pl.22b; Butlin 1981, p.527 no.754, pl.982
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<p>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/p/paper" title="Glossary definition for 'Paper'"><span>paper</span></a> has been trimmed along the edges, cutting off the last letters of ‘instruction’; the last four words of the inscription are squeezed in above the rest.
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<br/>This is apparently a counterproof of Blake's original, uninscribed <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>drawing</span></a> of this subject of <i>c</i>.1819–20 formerly in the collection of Sir Geoffrey Keynes and now in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (Butlin 1981, no.753, pl.981). This was included by William Rossetti in his 1880 lists (p.263 list 2 no.81) as ‘Lois’ meaning ‘Lais’, the courtesan of Corinth who is in fact the subject of another of the Visionary Heads (Butlin no.712, pl.924); this mistake was followed until the 1950s. When the Keynes drawing was exhibited at the Tate Gallery in 1913 (71) Archibald G.B. Russell said of it that ‘The drawing appears to be a duplicate taken by means of blackened paper with a hard <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/g/graphite" title="Glossary definition for 'Graphite'"><span>pencil</span></a> from the original sketch, and afterward touched up with pencil’, in other words a counterproof, and indeed it seems to be in reverse to both of the examples in the Tate Gallery. However, it appears to this compiler that the Keynes drawing is the most sensitive of the three versions and that it must therefore be Blake's original. (It should perhaps be stressed that, although in reproduction these three drawings often look to be of different sizes, this is because of the different sizes of the sheets of paper on which they have been executed. In fact the heads on each drawing measure 14.4 (5 11/16) from the top of the hair to the point of the chin.)
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<br/>Keynes (1977) saw this drawing as a visionary self-<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/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portrait</span></a>, partly on account of its resemblance to the full-face highly finished drawing in pencil and grey wash attributed to John Linnell and now in the collection of Robert N. Essick (Keynes 1977, pl.35). As a portrayal of Blake's inspiration this could certainly be so. Keynes also interprets the strange <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/f/form" title="Glossary definition for 'Form'"><span>form</span></a> on the figure's forehead as the Menorah, the symbol of spiritual enlightenment derived from the seven-branched candlestick of the Jews, but in fact it appears to have eight branches and may rather be a more general allusion to the flames of inspiration.</p>
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Catalogue entry
2004-10-07T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults artist, painter arts and entertainment Blake, William body emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas head / face inspiration literary man mysticism named individuals people poet portraits religion and belief self-portraits vision work and occupations