Artwork details 
<p>Artist
<a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/William_Blake" title="William Blake">William Blake</a> (1757‑1827) 
</p><p>Title
</p><p>The River of Life
</p><p>Date c.1805 
</p><p>MediumInk and watercolour on paper
</p><p>Dimensionsimage: 305 x 336 mm support: 442 x 432 mm
</p><p>Collection
<a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tate_Britain" title="Tate Britain">Tate Britain</a>
</p><p>Acquisition Bequeathed by W. Graham Robertson 1949
</p><p>This work illustrates lines from the Book of Revelation. The River of Life flows from the throne of God to the Tree of Life. 
</p><p>It is also a rare example of how Blake presented his watercolours: he drew the washline border between ruled ink lines. 
</p>
The yellow tone of the paper is the result of over-exposure to light. This caused some of the original blue paint (indigo perhaps) to fade; the fuzzy band of Prussian blue on the lower edge, and spots of the same colour in the river, were added later by someone trying to ‘correct’ this fading.
<bdi><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:William_Blake" class="extiw" title="w:en:William Blake"><span title="English poet and artist (1757–1827)">William Blake</span></a>
</bdi>
<a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-the-river-of-life-n05887">http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-the-river-of-life-n05887</a>