Graphite 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>
Landscape near Felpham
Presented by Mrs John Richmond 1922
architecture
church
cloud
cottage
England
England, South East
England, Southern
Felpham, St Mary’s Church
Felpham, The Turret
field
Heaven - sunbeam
house
industrial
landscape
places
religious
religious
residential
sunshine
Sussex - non-specific
Sussex, West
symbols and personifications
townscape, distant
townscapes / man-made features
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
weather
windmill
<p>This landscape shows the area near Felpham where Blake’s patron, the poet William Hayley, lived. Hayley’s house, called the Turret, can be seen in the centre.</p><p>Blake and his wife stayed near Hayley between 1800 and 1803. They lived in the cottage seen to the right, which Blake described as one that could not be ‘improved either in Beauty or Use’. The sunbeam falling on the cottage seems to refer to Blake’s first reaction on arriving in Felpham after leaving London: ‘Heaven opens here on all sides her Golden Gate; her window’s are not obscured by vapours.’</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2004</em></p>
paper unique graphite watercolour
24 March 2003 – 17 November 2003
2003-11-17
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2003-03-24
Blake and Illustration
Collection based display
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
31 March 2007 – 10 June 2007
2007-06-10
31 March 2007 – 10 June 2007
2007-06-10
2007-03-31
Pallant House Gallery (Chichester, UK)
2007-03-31
Poets in the Landscape: The Romantic Spirit in British Art
Loan-out
13 May 2013 – 6 October 2013
2013-10-06
13 May 2013 – 6 October 2013
2013-10-06
2013-05-13
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2013-05-13
Landscape in Blake
Collection based display
2 January 2018 – 31 March 2018
2018-03-31
2 January 2018 – 31 March 2018
2018-03-31
2018-01-02
National Trust: Petworth House (Petworth, UK)
2018-01-02
William Blake in Sussex
Loan-out
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
Landscape near Felpham
support: 237 × 343 mm
Presented by Mrs John Richmond 1922
<div class="para3">
<span class="text9">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/l/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>landscape</span></a> shows the area near Felpham where      Blake’s patron, the </span><span class="text6">
</span><span class="text8">poet </span><span class="text7">William Hayley, lived.      Hayley’s house,  called</span><span class="text8"> the Turret, can be      seen in the centre</span><span class="text6">. </span>
</div>
<div class="para3">
<span class="text6">
<br/> </span>
</div>
<div class="para3">
<span class="text8">Blake and his wife stayed near Hayley between 1800 and      1803. They lived in</span><span class="text6">
</span><span class="text9">the      cottage seen to the right, which </span><span class="text6">
Blake      described as one that could not  </span><span class="text8">be      ‘improved either in Beauty or Use’. The </span><span class="text6">sunbeam falling on the cottage seems to </span><span class="text9">refer      to Blake’s first reaction on arriving </span><span class="text6">
in      Felpham after leaving London: ‘Heaven opens here on all sides her      Golden Gate; </span><span class="text8">her window’s are not obscured      by vapours.’</span><span class="text6">
<br/> </span>
</div>

Display caption
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-landscape-near-felpham-a00041" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>A00041</span></a> <b>Landscape near Felpham</b> <i>c.</i>1800
<br/>
<br/>A 00041 / B 368
<br/>Pencil and watercolour 237×343 (9 3/8×13 1/2) on paper, trimmed irregularly 300×412 (11 13/16×16 3/16)</p>
<p>Inscribed by Frederick Tatham ‘William Blake vouched by Frederick Tatham. subject not known. perhaps near Felpham’ b.r.
<br/>Presented by Mrs John Richmond 1922
<br/>PROVENANCE Mrs Blake; Frederick Tatham; his brother-in-law George Richmond, sold Christie's 29 April 1897 (in 147 with 22 other items; see no.2) £2.10.0 bt Dr Richard Sisley; his daughter Mrs John Richmond
<br/>EXHIBITED Tate Gallery 1947 (67); <i>Landscape in Britain c.1750–1850</i> Tate Gallery, November 1973-February 1974 (286, repr.); Tate Gallery 1978 (144, repr.)
<br/>LITERATURE Wright 1929, 1, at pl.36, repr.; Blunt 1959, p.68; Bindman 1977, p.139; Butlin 1981, pp.312–13 no.368, colour pl.346
<br/></p>
<p>From September 1800 until September 1803 Blake lived in a cottage at Felpham near Chichester, Sussex, under the patronage of the poet, biographer and man of letters William Hayley (1745–1820), to whom he had been recommended by John Flaxman. Although he was able to continue his work for Thomas Butts and other patrons, and to write much of the text of <i>Milton</i>, a lot of his time was taken up with increasingly uncongenial projects given him by the well-meaning but uncomprehending Hayley. These included decorating Hayley's library, <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> <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/miniature" title="Glossary definition for 'Miniature'"><span>miniature</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/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portraits</span></a> and illustrating Hayley's poems and biographies of Cowper and Romney.
<br/>
<br/>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> shows the Church of St Mary and, in the centre, Hayley's house ‘The Turret’. Blake's cottage was once identified as that shown between the two towers, but has now been established as that lit up by the perhaps visionary beams of sunlight breaking through the clouds on the right; it is similar in its general shape, with a lower annex on the right, though not in details of fenestration, to the illustration of ‘Blake's Cottage at Felpham’ on plate 36 of <i>Milton</i> (repr. Morchard Bishop, <i>Blake's Hayley</i>, 1951, between pp.160 and 161; Bishop also reproduces <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/photograph" title="Glossary definition for 'Photograph'"><span>photographs</span></a> of the cottage and of ‘The Turret’, and George Engleheart's <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 <i>c.</i>1810 of the latter, showing the original appearance of the tower). The large mill on the left was a prominent feature in Felpham at the time but has since been destroyed.
<br/>
<br/>It is tempting to see this watercolour as Blake's first reaction to the prospect that opened up with the move to Felpham. As he wrote to John Flaxman on 21 September 1800, three days after his arrival, ‘Felpham is a sweet place for Study, because it is more Spiritual than London. Heaven opens here on all sides her Golden Gates; her windows are not obstructed by vapours; voices of Celestial inhabitants are more distinctly heard, &amp; their forms more distinctly seen, &amp; my Cottage is also a Shadow of their houses’ (Keynes <i>Writings</i> 1957, p.802).
<br/>
<br/>This work was formerly inventoried by the Tate Gallery as no.3694 xii.</p>
<p>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Martin Butlin, <i>William Blake 1757-1827</i>, Tate Gallery Collections, V, London 1990
<br/>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-22T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
architecture church cloud cottage England England, South East England, Southern Felpham, St Mary’s Church Felpham, The Turret field Heaven - sunbeam house industrial landscape places religious religious residential sunshine Sussex - non-specific Sussex, West symbols and personifications townscape, distant townscapes / man-made features UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions weather windmill