This exhibit in Schaffer Library showcased Blake’s illuminated books in a number of contexts. Facsimiles made by the Trianon Press were featured heavily; student essays in the accompanying catalog, often discuss how the choices of binding material or the format of the reproduction affected their encounter with Blake’s work. Each essay addresses the overall themes or imagery of the selected book, some in relation to other works by Blake. Facsimiles from the Manchester Workshop and Granary Books were also on display.
This exhibit in Schaffer Library featured a facsimiles of Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience in particular. Sample images from different publishers were displayed along with material from Blake scholar and printmaker Michael Phillips. Student essays in the catalog for this exhibit, available below, focus primarily on the printing techniques used by Blake himself as well as those making the various facsimiles.
This public event in the College Arts building welcomed “friends and guests” to a showcase of student creativity in response to Blake’s work, presented in the form of brief talks on a variety of subjects, dramatic readings, music, and other interpretive material. A program guide distributed at the event is available below. The Blake@Union website is designed to capture and preserve such events more fully in future.
To mark the launch of the Blake@Union project, students in all disciplines at Union College are invited to submit a response in any medium to the works of Blake. The competition is intended to celebrate student creativity and provides an opportunity for new student work to be featured on the Blake@Union website and in a concurrent onsite exhibit in the College library. Prizes will be awarded in each of two categories (arts/media and text). Student works of any length or format are welcome; the only requirement is that they interpret, respond to, or are otherwise inspired by something by or about Blake. See the full announcement below.
This lecture by Blake scholar and printmaker Michael Phillips was co-sponsored by the departments of English and Visual Arts. It was held in conjunction with the student-curated exhibit “William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience,” which explored various facsimiles of that work. A catalog of the student exhibit, to which Phillips contributed material, is available below.
This symposium and exhibition was sponsored jointly by Skidmore College and Union College. It brought speakers on Blake from research institutions across the east coast and included a workshop on Blake’s printing methods by Joseph Viscomi. A description of the program can be accessed below. An exhibition featuring original engravings by Blake, contemporary works, and Trianon Press facsimiles was held in conjunction with the two-day symposium and traveled from one institution to the other over a period of several months. The Friends of the Union College Library published a full catalog of the exhibition by Union College Professor of English James McCord.
A male figure with curly hair lies at the bottom of this plate from series B of There is No Natural Religion (1971 facsimile). His arms are rigid at his side, which indicates that he is either sleeping, dead, or in a trance. His head is lifted slightly compared to the rest of his body. Above his head, a faceless figure appears to stand with arms and one leg extended. Leaves and berries surround the number at the top of the plate. The text dominates the plate and makes a clear statement that “Reason or the ratio of all we have already known, is not the same that it shall be when we know more.”
This frontispiece is included with the Trianon Press Laocoon volume (1976 facsimile). It is described as “an enigmatic self-portrait” of Blake himself, “whose last testament is studied in this book. On his head is a Menorah, the ancient symbol of the Tree of Life and of spiritual insight.” Not available at the William Blake Archive. Consult the book in Schaffer Library for a detailed view of the image.
Blake includes various notes about his interpretation of the Laocoons sculpture in this engraving (1976 facsimile). He believed the sculpture to depict Jehovah and his two sons, Adam and Satan. Blake’s commentary that surrounds the human figures touches on many subjects, but themes of creativity, art, and the imagination abound in Blakean aphorisms such as “Without Unceasing Practise nothing can be done Practise is Art / If you leave off you are Lost.” “Prayer is the Study of Art Praise is the Practise of Art.” “Art can never exist without / Naked Beauty displayed.” “The Eternal Body of Man is the Imagination, that is God himself.”
This selection of reproductions of representative pages from Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience is included in Geoffrey Keynes’ Study of the Illuminated Books, published by the Trianon Press in 1964. Unlike the representation of pages from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, this selection consists of pages with no text other than the titles written on two of the pages. These images are rich in color but dark at the same time. The dark color that is being evoked in the images may relate to Keynes’ observation that the Songs of Experience in particular are a “summing up for Blake all the bitterness and disappointment of adult reality.” The choices of these images was likely done strategically, to show Blake’s style as an artist, instead of presenting bits of his writings out of context.
Not available in this form at the William Blake Archive; consult the book in the library for more information.
This selection of reproductions of representative pages from Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is included in Geoffrey Keynes’ Study of the Illuminated Books, published by the Trianon Press in 1964. It is interesting to note that the reproductions showcased here emphasize Blake’s densely textual pages rather than his imagery alone. Keynes’ commentary explains that The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is possibly one of Blake’s most accessible works, which may also explain why Trianon chose to show pages with mostly words. The layout balances out the title page with pages of full text in opposite columns. It is a beautiful display of both Blake’s art and writings.
Not available in this form at the William Blake Archive; consult the book in the library for more information.
Description: Pages 60-61 from Palmer’s Sketchbook (1962 facsimile) are believed to show a judgment scene. They are part of a series of pages that are an exception to the rest of the sketchbook, which normally features scenes of nature. Instead, this series of pages has a clear religious context. It is interesting to think about these pages in relation to Blake’s own intimate connection to religion. Religious concepts were joined to perceptions of nature during the Romantic era, of which both Palmer and Blake were a part. Not available at the William Blake Archive. Consult the book in Schaffer Library for a detailed view of the image.
While page 28 from Palmer’s Sketchbook (1962 facsimile) devotes an equal amount of space to words and pictures, it appears to emphasize the people in Palmer’s life. Palmer talks about a Mr. Finch and a “Mr. B,” believed to be Blake. Blake may even be represented in the profile portrait on the right. Blake’s suggestions for the way in which natural forms are represented though lines, quoted here, are also captured in sketches on this page. The two bottom, sideways images are believed to be lions. Not available at the William Blake Archive. Consult the book in Schaffer Library for a detailed view of the image.
Pages 8-9 from Palmer’s Sketchbook (1962 facsimile) show Palmer’s interest in the divine. On the left are sketches of both a sun and a moon, either rising or setting. On the right is a radiant picture of nature overlooked by a figure holding what is believed to be a Bible. The left side is more light, airy, and open than the right side, which is more intense and filled with detail. The greater detail on the right could be an indication that Palmer was exploring the divine in a more focused way. Not available at the William Blake Archive. Consult the book in Schaffer Library for a detailed view of the image.
This first page from Palmer’s Sketchbook (1962 facsimile) shows Palmer’s interest in drawing evening scenes, skies, and landscapes. This particular scene is believed to be from July 15, 1824 and portrays twilight, with a rising moon over various hills, houses and fields. Palmer uses nearly half of the page to write down his ideas and thoughts. The sketches in the bottom of the page are very simple but foreshadow the landscape paintings for which he would become famous. Not available at the William Blake Archive. Consult the book in Schaffer Library for a detailed view of the image.
In Blake’s image from the Thomas set of his work for Milton’s Paradise Lost (2004 facsimile), three figures sit around a table within the beautiful Garden of Eden. On the left side of the image, Adam and Eve sit together listening to the angel Raphael, on the right. Raphael gestures warningly to the Tree of Knowledge in the distance, which already has a snake coiled around it. Adam appears to be interacting and paying more attention to what Raphael is saying, while Eve is looking downward, her mind seemingly elsewhere. Her lack of attention may be an allusion to the sin she later commits.
In Blake’s image from the Thomas set of his work for Milton’s Paradise Lost (2004 facsimile), Adam and Eve are depicted nude, kissing on a bed of flowers in the Garden of Eden. Above them a blue-colored Satan floats in the sky. He has an orange snake curled around his body. Adam and Eve’s pure love is at the center of the image; the snake wrapped around Satan is possibly a symbol of his self-love, malice, or ultimate transformation into a snake to trick Eve into eating the forbidden fruit. The progression of Satan flying into the light sky on the left from the dark on the right could represent him bringing the darkness to Adam and Eve.
There are three figures in Blake’s image from the Thomas set of his work for Milton’s Paradise Lost (2004 facsimile). Left to right are Satan, Sin, and Death. Sin is the only female character in the image and appears to be struggling to push Death and Satan, who are fighting, away from each other. Sin appears to be only part human; she is surrounded by snakes who obscure her figure from the waist down. Satan is a pale figure who is holding a spear and shield and lunging at Death, while Death appears to be largely transparent and lunges at Satan with a fiery weapon. While this fight is occurring, the room is being engulfed with fire. Blake takes the opportunity to play with dark and light in this image. Even though there is a fire and two of the figures are a bright white, the image still conveys darkness. Part of this effect could be from the subject matter; however, some part is due to the way Blake plays with the bright flames, the pale figure of Satan, and the shimmering aura around Sin, versus the desolate darkness of Death, whose identity is so uncertain. Death is given the ability to be “invisible,” while at the same time he can take on the appearance of anything.
In 2004 the Arion Press produced this portfolio of thirteen watercolor drawings by Blake as a companion to its previous, unillustrated edition of Paradise Lost, published two years earlier. The prints by Blake were the first facsimiles printed at full scale and in full color from the original paintings held at the Huntington Library, which are a combination of drawings made for two different patrons in 1807 and 1808. The copy of this portfolio at Union College includes a prospectus for the project. The rare book collection at Union also includes a copy of the unillustrated Paradise Lost, published by Arion in a limited edition in 2002.
The dark frontispiece to Blake’s Illustrations to the Bible (1957 facsimile) resembles images of the Virgin Mary and Jesus from Byzantine art. It uses the same gold on the figures, and its iconography is similar, depicting large, solid halos above simplified, stylized figures. Not available at the William Blake Archive. Consult the book in Schaffer Library for a detailed view of the image.
In this plate from Blake’s Illustrations to the Bible (1957 facsimile), Jesus stands on top of a cliff after resisting the third temptation, which was Satan’s promise to give Jesus everything as long as Jesus pledged his allegiance to Satan. Jesus looks upon the swarming, dark clouds that trail the falling Satan. The shining light and two angels, in the top left, have arrived after Jesus has successfully resisted all of Satan’s temptations. This watercolor is from a series of about 80 works that Blake painted for one of his patrons, Thomas Butts, in the early 1800s.
This plate from Blake’s Illustrations to the Bible (1957 facsimile) represents God blessing the seventh day, which is a day for rest. Blake’s image, however, seems anything but restful. A vibrant yellow sunburst full of energy surrounds a soft blue and lavender circle which contains God and other figures looking out. The image utilizes only two main colors to create a dynamic effect. Not available at the William Blake Archive. Consult the book in Schaffer Library for a detailed view of the image.
This image from the beginning of Blake’s Illustrations of the Book of Job (1987 facsimile) shows Job’s family before God tests him. It depicts Job’s devotion in a scene of pastoral peace; everyone’s faces are calm and serene. It is the calm before the storm, to be used as a comparison to the future scenes where Job and his family suffer their reversals of fortune and begin to question everything. Blake surrounds the central image with his own selection of texts, including an anachronistic prayer connecting Job’s faith and ordeal to the New Testament.
At the top of this image from Blake’s Illustrations of the Book of Job (1874 reprint), God is pointing down two of his creations, Behemoth and Leviathan. Behemoth is the creature who appears to have attributes of real animals such as a rhino, elephant and hippo; under him is Leviathan, an underwater sea monster. Both of these are creatures of chaos, who can only be created and destroyed by God himself. The group of people below God, who are looking at the creatures, consists of Job, his wife, and family. Blake surrounds the central image with his own selection of texts.
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