Blake William

1903 · réf. 23193 — London 1903. Engraving by Thomas Butts after Blake. Laid paper. First and only state. Hand-written in ink upper right corner "Cent quatre vingt septieme 187" Christ walks over the vanquished Satan. This fascinating engraving after a Blake drawing depicts a muscular and single-minded Christ with a bow in one hand and arrow in the other walking on the beard and chest of Satan who despite his lifeless eyes reaches for Christ's bow. Blake's Christ is more reminiscent of Hercules or Gilgamesh than the Christ known to us through church iconography and his Satan reminds us more of Zeus than Christianity's Devil. Archibald Russell in The Engravings of William Blake Houghton Mifflin 1912 writes that this image illustrates a passage in Paradise Lost Bk. VI 763 but was an allegory for the triumph of imagination or creativity over reason. Thomas Butts senior 1757-1845 and junior 1788-1862 were both given drawing and engraving lessons by Blake starting in March 1806. They produced a number of plates from Blake's designs although his level of direct involvement can only be estimated. The present plate was sold by the Butts' descendants at Sotheby's lot 20 24 June 1903. The plate was acquired shortly after the auction by Edward J. Shaw of Walsall. He apparently had printed a number of impressions by December 1903. These are the earliest recorded impressions of this plate other than a single impression sold with the plate at the auction. The plate remained in Shaw's possession until 1925 when it was sold at Sotheby's 29 July lot 158 to Mansfield. The New York dealers E. Weyhe bought a number of impressions and possibly the plate itself as they still had multiple copies for sale as late as 1965. Essick records 18 copies of this print on various paper types but no order of precedence is given and he had not seen any `proof' impressions. Essick The Separate Plates of William Blake. unknown