Tempera and gold on mahogany
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>
Ghost a Flea
Bequeathed by W. Graham Robertson 1949
actions: postures and motions
adults
animal / human
animals: fantastic
animals: insects & lower animals
astronomy
comet
cup / mug
curtain
flea
furnishings
ghost
kitchen
magic and occultism
male
man
mysticism
night
nudes
objects
people
religion and belief
star
times of the day
vision
walking
<p>John Varley – an artist, astrologer and close friend of Blake – reported in his <i>Treatise on Zodiacal Physiognomy </i>(1882) that Blake once had a spiritual vision of a ghost of a flea and that ‘This spirit visited his imagination in such a figure as he never anticipated in an insect.’ While drawing the spirit it told the artist that all fleas were inhabited by the souls of men who were ‘by nature bloodthirsty to excess’. In the painting it holds a cup for blood-drinking and stares eagerly towards it. Blake’s amalgamation of man and beast suggests a human character marred by animalistic traits.</p><p><em>Gallery label, May 2011</em></p>
painting tempera gold mahogany
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
15 February 2006 – 1 May 2006
2006-05-01
15 February 2006 – 1 May 2006
2006-05-01
2006-02-15
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2006-02-15
Gothic Nightmares: Fuseli, Blake and the Romantic Imagination
Exhibition
18 August 2009 – 14 November 2010
2010-11-14
18 August 2009 – 14 November 2010
2010-11-14
2009-08-18
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-08-18
Sublime
Collection based display
11 November 2010 – 3 April 2011
2011-04-03
11 November 2010 – 3 April 2011
2011-04-03
2010-11-11
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2010-11-11
Blake and Physiognomy
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
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
22 May 2017 – 28 July 2019
2019-07-28
22 May 2017 – 28 July 2019
2019-07-28
2017-05-22
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2017-05-22
William Blake in Focus
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
29 October 2024 – 30 September 2025
2025-09-30
30 October 2024 – 2 February 2025
2025-02-02
2024-10-30
Reggia di Venaria Reale (Turin, Italy)
1 September 2025 – 31 January 2026
2026-01-31
2025-09-01
Museum of Fine Arts (Budapest, Hungary)
1 March 2026 – 31 August 2026
2026-08-31
2026-03-01
External
2024-10-29
William Blake and the Age of Romantic Fantasy: British Art & Imagination
Loan-out
The Ghost of a Flea
support: 214 × 162 mm

Bequeathed by W. Graham Robertson 1949
<p>John Varley – an artist, astrologer and close friend of Blake – reported in his <i>Treatise on Zodiacal Physiognomy </i>(1882) that Blake once had a spiritual vision of a ghost of a flea and that ‘This spirit visited his imagination in such a figure as he never anticipated in an insect.’ While drawing the spirit it told the artist that all fleas were inhabited by the souls of men who were ‘by nature bloodthirsty to excess’. In the painting it holds a cup for blood-drinking and stares eagerly towards it. Blake’s amalgamation of man and beast suggests a human character marred by animalistic traits.</p>
<p></p>

Display caption
2011-05-18T00:00:00
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-ghost-of-a-flea-n05889" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05889</span></a> <b>The Ghost of a Flea</b> <i>c</i>.1819–20
<br/></p>
<p>N 05889 / B 750
<br/>Tempera heightened with gold on mahogany 214×162 (8 7/16×6 3/8)
<br/>Signed ‘WBlake Fresco’ b.r.
<br/>Bequeathed by W. Graham Robertson 1949
<br/>PROVENANCE John Varley; his son Albert Varley, sold February 1878 to William Bell Scott, sold Sotheby's 14 July 1892 (235) £10.5.0., bt Quaritch, by whom offered <i>rough list 127</i> August 1892 £18, and sold 1892 to W. Graham Robertson
<br/>EXHIBITED <i>International Exhibition of Industry, Science and Art</i> Edinburgh 1886 (Pictures and Works of Art 1444, as ‘A Vampire’); Carfax 1906 (22); <i>Century of Art</i> Grafton Galleries 1911 (59, as' ‘A Vampire’); Tate Gallery 1913 (69); BFAC 1927 (57); Tate Gallery 1947 (48); Bournemouth, Southampton and Brighton 1949 (17); <i>Romantic Movement</i> Tate Gallery 1959 (24); Tate Gallery 1978 (283, repr.)
<br/>LITERATURE Smith <i>Nollekens and his Times</i>
1828, 11, pp.471–2, 480–1 (reprinted in Bentley 1969, pp.467, 472); Varley <i>Treatise on Zodiacal Physiognomy</i> 1828, p.55 (reprinted Bentley 1969, p.373, and Butlin 1969, p.11); Allan Cunningham, <i>Lives of the Most Eminent British Painters, Sculptors and Architects</i>, 11, 2nd ed. 1830, pp.169–70 (reprinted Bentley 1969, pp.497–8, and Butlin 1969, p.16); Rossetti 1880, p.222 no.109; Robertson in Gilchrist 1907, p.494 no.19, repr. facing p.274; G.K. Chesterton, <i>William Blake</i>, 1910, p.153; Frye 1947, pp.123–4; Preston 1952, pp.77–82 no.21, pl.21; Keynes in <i>Bulletin of the New York Public Library</i>, LXIV, 1960, pp.568–72, repr. facing p.566; Burke 1964, pp.122–3 (reprinted in Essick 1973, pp.281–4); Bentley <i>Blake Records</i>, 1969, pp.264, 352–3, 372–3, 467, 472, 497–8; Butlin 1969, pp.15–16, 28, pl.5; Keynes <i>Blake Studies</i>
1971, pp.131–2, 134, pl.31; Todd 1971, pp.113–7, repr.; Klonsky 1977, p.125, repr.; Butlin 1981, pp.524–5 no.750, colour pl.966. <i>Also repr.</i>: Eugenie de Keyser, <i>The Romantic West</i> 1789–1850, 1965, p.105 in colour; <i>Mizue</i>, no.882, 1978, 9, p.29 in colour
<br/></p>
<p>A label on the back, written by William Bell Scott, states that 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/panel" title="Glossary definition for 'Panel'"><span>panel</span></a> was bought from John Varley's son Albert in February 1878. This is confirmed by an inscription by Scott of the same date, written inside the back cover of the Small Blake-Varley Sketchbook (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-a-figure-standing-in-a-gothic-apse-perhaps-the-empress-maud-verso-detailed-drawings-t01334" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T01334</span></a>-<span>T01334</span>, <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-head-of-the-ghost-of-a-flea-verso-a-profile-and-a-reduced-drawing-of-miltons-n05184" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05184</span></a>), saying that, ‘I have since getting this book [in 1870], bought the <i><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/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a></i> of the “Ghost” of the Flea, from Mr Varley of Oakley St. Chelsea, son of John Varley’.
<br/>
<br/>Another label, written in the same hand, supplies a copy of an inscription by John Varley on an earlier label, now nearly illegible. The original seems to have read, ‘The Vision of the Spirit which inhabits the body of a Flea &amp; which appeared to the Late Mr. Blake, the designer of the Vignettes for Blair's Grave &amp; the Book of Job. The Vision first appeared to him in my presence &amp; afterwards till he had finished this picture. A flea he said drew blood on this..., [the rest is illegible on both labels] J Varley’. In his <i>Treatise on Zodiacal Physiognomy</i> of 1828 Varley describes how, after Blake had drawn the head of the flea (<span>N05184</span>), it ‘afforded him a view of his whole figure; an <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/engraving" title="Glossary definition for 'Engraving'"><span>engraving</span></a> of which I shall give in this work.’ The engraving, which was never published, was presumably to have been based on the full-length <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 the flea on page 94 of the Blake-Varley sketchbook. This shows the flea standing more erect than in 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/t/tempera" title="Glossary definition for 'Tempera'"><span>tempera</span></a>, touching his tongue with the forefinger of his left hand (Butlin 1981, no.692 <i>94</i>, sold at Christie's 15 June 1971 (in 141, repr.) bought by Martin Breslauer and sold in 1977 to a British private collection; also repr. Butlin 1969).
<br/>
<br/>When Alan Cunningham visited Varley in connection with the chapter on Blake for his <i>Lives</i>, published in 1830, he was shown the tempera, which Varley suggested was the product of a second visitation. ‘“I'll tell you all about it sir”’, reports Cunningham. ‘“I called upon him one evening and found Blake more than usually excited. He told me he had seen a wonderful thing - the ghost of a flea! ‘And did you make a drawing of him?’ I inquired. ‘No indeed’ said he, ‘I wish I had, but I shall, if he appears again!’ He looked earnestly into a corner of the room, and then said, ‘here he is - reach me my things - I shall keep my eye on him. There he comes! his eager tongue whisking out of his mouth, a cup in his hands to hold blood and covered with a scaly skin of gold and green;’ - as he described him so he drew him.”’ Varley's account, though an accurate description of the painting, may be a fanciful one; Blake could well have worked up the painting from the drawing. Another locale for the execution of one of the versions of ‘The Ghost of a Flea’ is suggested by Walter Thornbury in his <i>British Artists from Hogarth to Turner</i>, 1861, 1, p.28: ‘the house of the father of my old friend, Leigh, the artist’ (Samuel Leigh, father of James Mathews Leigh, where ‘Blake was a frequent visitor’), but this seems unlikely both for the two drawings in the sketchbook, which seem to have been done at Varley's (see <span>N05184</span>), and for the tempera, according to Varley painted at Blake's own house.
<br/>
<br/>The technique of this tempera is closer to the temperas of <i>c</i>.1800–10 than to Blake's late, very different temperas of <i>c</i>.1821–6 (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-moses-indignant-at-the-golden-calf-t04134" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T04134</span></a>, <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-bathsheba-at-the-bath-n03007" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N03007</span></a>, <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-christ-blessing-the-little-children-n05893" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05893</span></a>, <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-agony-in-the-garden-n05894" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05894</span></a>, <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-body-of-christ-borne-to-the-tomb-n01164" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N01164</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-spiritual-form-of-nelson-guiding-leviathan-n03006" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N03006</span></a>,<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-spiritual-form-of-pitt-guiding-behemoth-n01110" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N01110</span></a>, <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-bard-from-gray-n03551" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N03551</span></a> as opposed to <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-winter-t02387" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T02387</span></a>, <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-body-of-abel-found-by-adam-and-eve-n05888" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05888</span></a>, <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-satan-smiting-job-with-sore-boils-n03340" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N03340</span></a>).</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 animal / human animals: fantastic animals: insects & lower animals astronomy comet cup / mug curtain flea furnishings ghost kitchen magic and occultism male man mysticism night nudes objects people religion and belief star times of the day vision walking