Colour print, ink and watercolour on paper
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>
Elohim Creating Adam
Presented by W. Graham Robertson 1939
abstract concepts
actions: postures and motions
Adam
adults
animals: insects & lower animals
Bible: Old Testament
creation of Man
flying
Genesis
God
Judaeo-Christian imagery
landscape
lying down
male
man
man, old
material world - worm
nudes
people
religion and belief
rocky
storm
symbols and personifications
weather
worm
<p>Elohim is a Hebrew name for God. This picture illustrates the Book of Genesis:</p><p>‘And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground’. Adam is shown growing out of the earth, a piece of which Elohim holds in his left hand.</p><p>For Blake the God of the Old Testament was a false god. He believed the Fall of Man took place not in the Garden of Eden, but at the time of creation shown here, when man was dragged from the spiritual realm and made material.</p><p><em>Gallery label, May 2003</em></p>
paper unique colour print 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
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
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
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
15 November 2021 – 10 April 2022
2022-04-10
15 November 2021 – 10 April 2022
2022-04-10
2021-11-15
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2021-11-15
Poetical Bodies: Works on Paper by Blake and his Contemporaries
Collection based display
Elohim Creating Adam
support: 431 × 536 mm
Presented by W. Graham Robertson 1939
<div>
    Elohim is a Hebrew name for God. This picture illustrates the Book of Genesis: 
<br/> </div>
<div>
    ‘And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the      ground’. Adam is shown growing out of the earth, a piece of which      Elohim holds in his left hand.  </div>
<div>
<br/> </div>
<div>
    For Blake the God of the Old Testament was a false god. He believed the Fall of Man took place not in the Garden of Eden, but at the time of creation shown here, when man was dragged from the spiritual realm and made material.       
<br/> </div>

Display caption
2003-05-07T00:00:00
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-elohim-creating-adam-n05055" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05055</span></a> <b>Elohim Creating Adam</b> 1795/<i>c.</i>1805
<br/></p>
<p>N 05055 / B 289
<br/>Colour print finished in ink and watercolour 431 × 536 (17 × 21 1/8) on paper approx. 515×595 (20 1/4×23 1/2)
<br/>Signed ‘1795 WB inv [in monogram]’ b.c. and inscribed ‘Elohim creating 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 BFAC 1876 (205); Carfax 1904 (18); Carfax 1906 (30); <i>Century of Art</i>
Grafton Galleries 1911 (55); Tate Gallery (1), Manchester (1), Nottingham (1) and Edinburgh (5) 1913–14; on loan to Tate Gallery 1923–7; BFAC 1927 (1, pl.2); <i>British Art</i> R A 1934 (771, pl.87; 701, pl.164); Whitechapel 1934 (51); <i>Wartime Acquisitions</i> National Gallery 1942 (8); Paris (1, repr. in colour facing p.6), Antwerp (1, pl.2), Zurich (1, repr. in colour) and Tate Gallery (2) 1947; Tate Gallery 1978 (85, repr. in colour)
<br/>LITERATURE Rossetti 1863, p.203 no.18, and 1880, p.209 no.20; Robertson in Gilchrist 1907, pp.406–7, repr. facing p.406; Binyon and Keynes <i>Job</i> 1935, 1, p.10; Percival 1938, p.214, repr.; Collins Baker in <i>Huntington Library Quarterly</i>, IV, 1940–1, p.366, repr. p.363 (reprinted in Essick 1973, pp.124–5, pl.48); Blunt in <i>Warburg Journal</i>, VI, 1943, pp.198–9, 226; Keynes <i>Faber Gallery</i> 1946, pp.4, 24, colour pl. 1; Fryc 1947, p.130; Preston 1952, pp.29–31 no.1, pl.1; Digby 1957, pp.32–3, pl.34; Keynes <i>Bible</i> 1957, p.2 no.3 repr.; H.M. Margoliouth ‘Blake's Drawings for Young's Night Thoughts’. Pinto 1957, pp.202–3; Blunt 1959, p.58, pl.26b; Damon 1965, pp.5, 119; Beer 1968, pp.192, 256, pl.34; Keynes <i>Letters</i> 1968, p.118; Raine 1968, 11, p.13, pl.127; Bentley <i>Blake Records</i> 1969, p.573; Kostelanetz in Rosenfeld 1969, p.124, pl.2; Warner in Erdman and Grant 1970, pp.184, 189, pl.94; Tolley in <i>Blake Newsteller</i>, VI, 1972–3, pp.28–9; Mellor 1974, pp.151–2, pl. 39; Rosenblum 1975, pp.43–4, pl. 47; Bindman 1977, pp.98–9, colour pl. 1; Klonsky 1977, p.57, repr. in colour; Bindman <i>Graphic Works</i> 1978, no.324, repr.; Paley 1978, p.37, colour pl.28; Butlin in <i>Blake</i> XIII, 1979–80, p.16; Essick <i>Printmaker</i> 1980, p.132; La Belle in <i>Blake</i> XIV, 1980–1, pp.67–72, pl.3; Butlin 1981, pp.158–9 no.289, colour pl.388; Raine 1982, pp.30, 226, 308 and at pl.104, repr.; Warner 1984, pp.20, 30–1, 42–3, 87, 95–6, 105, 121, pl. 17; Hoagwood 1985, p.69, pl.6. <i>Also repr: Mizue</i>, no.816, 1973, ⅔, p.13, colour pl.1
<br/></p>
<p>Listed in Blake's account with Thomas Butts of 3 March 1806 as ‘God Creating Adam’, apparently as having been delivered on 7 September 1805. There are no other known versions but, this version having already been sold to Butts, there could have been a second copy when, on 9 June 1818, Blake offered a complete set of the 12 large <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>prints</span></a> to Dawson Turner (Butlin 1981, no.290). The Tate print, on account of the similarity in handling and colouring 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-nebuchadnezzar-n05059" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05059</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-newton-n05058" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05058</span></a>, seems to have been executed in 1804–5, shortly before being sold to Butts; the untraced version could have been executed when the design was first conceived, in the 1795 of the inscribed date. There is 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/g/graphite" title="Glossary definition for 'Graphite'"><span>pencil</span></a> sketch for 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/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> on p.54 of Blake's Notebook (Butlin no.201 <i>54</i>, repr. Erdman and Moor 1973).
<br/>
<br/>Elohim is one of the Hebrew names for God, the creator in Genesis and representing God in his aspect as Justice; the name can also be translated as ‘judges’. In Night the Eighth of <i>Vala or the Four Zoas</i> Elohim appears as the third of the seven Eyes of God sent by the Eternals to lead Man out of the error of selfhood: ‘They sent Elohim who created Adam To die for Satan’ (Keynes <i>Writings</i> 1957, p.351). In this design the non-conformist Blake stresses the negative aspect of the Creation: Man's enslavement to the material world is symbolised by the worm, emblem of mortality, that entwines Adam. The mystery of creation is paralleled by the account in <i>Urizen</i>, published the year before the design was conceived, 1794.
<br/>
<br/>Collins Baker suggests that the figure of Elohim is derived from 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> after the Skiron of the Temple of the Winds (R. Dalton's engraving repr. Collins Baker 1940–1, p.363; 1973, pl.49).</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
abstract concepts actions: postures and motions Adam adults animals: insects & lower animals Bible: Old Testament creation of Man flying Genesis God Judaeo-Christian imagery landscape lying down male man man, old material world - worm nudes people religion and belief rocky storm symbols and personifications weather worm