William blake and the art of engraving

WILLIAM BLAKE AND THE ART OF ENGRAVING The History of the Book Series Editor: Ann R Hawkins Titles in this Series Conservatism and the Quarterly Review: A Critical Analysis Jonathan Cutmore (ed.) Contributors to the Quarterly Review: A History, 1809–1825 Jonathan Cutmore (ed.) Wilkie Collins’s American Tour, 1873–1874 Susan R Hanes Forthcoming Titles Negotiated Knowledge: Medical Periodical Publishing in Scotland, 1733– 1832 Fiona A Macdonald On Paper: The Description and Analysis of Handmade Laid Paper R Carter Hailey Reading in History: New Methodologies from the Anglo-American Tradition Bonnie Gunzenhauser (ed.) Charles Lamb, Elia and the London Magazine: Metropolitan Muse Simon Hull www.pickeringchatto.com/historyofthebook WILLIAM BLAKE AND THE ART OF ENGRAVING by Mei-Ying Sung london PICKERING & CHATTO 2009 Published by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited 21 Bloomsbury Way, London WC1A 2TH 2252 Ridge Road, Brookfield, Vermont 05036-9704, USA www.pickeringchatto.com All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without prior permission of the publisher © Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Ltd 2009 © Mei-Ying Sung, 2009 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Sung, Mei-Ying William Blake and the art of engraving – (The history of the book) Blake, William, 1757–1827 – Criticism and interpretation I Title 769.9’2 ISBN-13: 9781851969586 ∞ This publication is printed on acid-free paper that conforms to the American National Standard for the Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Typeset by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge CONTENTS Abbreviation List of Figures Acknowledgements vi vii viii Introduction The History of the Theory of Conception and Execution The Evidence of Copper Plates Blake’s Engraved Copper Plates Copper Plate Makers in Blake’s Time Blake’s Virgil Woodcuts and the Earliest Re-engravers Conclusion 19 45 61 119 141 165 Notes Works Cited Index 169 199 211 ABBREVIATIONS Locations & Collections: Beinecke: Bodley: BL: BM: BMPD: Cleverdon: ESSICK: Beinecke Library, Yale University, New Haven CT, USA Bodleian Library, Oxford University British Library, London British Museum, London British Museum, Prints & Drawings Room Douglas Cleverdon private collection Robert Essick’s collection, Los Angeles CA, USA (to differentiate from Essick’s works) FMC: Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge Fogg: Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University, Boston MA, USA Houghton: Houghton Library, Harvard University, Boston MA, USA Huntington: Huntington Library, San Marino CA, USA Leeds: Brotherton Library, Leeds University Lewis Walpole: Lewis Walpole Library, Farmington, Yale University, CT, USA McGill: McGill University, Montreal, Canada NGA: National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia PA, USA PM: Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, USA Tate: Tate Gallery, London Texas: University of Texas, Austin TX, USA V&A: Victoria & Albert Museum, London YCBA: Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven CT, USA YUAG: Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven CT, USA References: BIQ: E: Blake: An Illustrated Quarterly, ed Morris Eaves and Morton D Paley, published under the support of Department of English, University of Rochester Erdman, David V., (ed.) The Complete Poetry & Prose of William Blake, New York, London: Doubleday, 1988 (revised edition of 1982 and 1965) – vi – LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Copper plate verso and the print from its recto on silk, An allegorical subject showing eight young girls circling a woman seated among clouds Figure 2: Blake’s Job copper plate, Plate 7, recto Figure 3: Blake Job copper plate, Plate 7, verso Figure 4: Blake’s Job copper plate, Plate 11, recto Figure 5: Blake’s Job copper plate, Plate 16, verso Figure 6: Plate maker’s mark on the copper plate verso of the title page of Blake’s Job Figure 7: Anonymous woodcut after Blake’s design for Thornton’s Virgil, no Figure 8: Two woodcut illustrations of Virgil by and after Blake – vii – 56 95 96 101 106 124 144 149 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The research of this book extends from my PhD thesis (Nottingham Trent University, 2005) The sequential outcome has been delivered in several conferences in the last few years It started from a joint paper with David Worrall, ‘A Reconsideration of the Execution and Conception: The Evidence of Blake’s Job Copperplates,’ presented in the conference ‘Friendly Enemies: Blake and the Enlightenment’ at Essex University (2000) It has become the core of this book Another paper, ‘The Experiments of Colour Printing and Blake Studies,’ presented at the ‘Blake Symposium: Large Colour Prints’ at Tate Britain (2002) has developed into another chapter ‘Blake’s Copper Plates’ was presented at Tate Britain for ‘William Blake at Work’ (2004), a conference mainly concerned the conservation scientists’ work on Blake ‘A Virgil Woodcut after Blake,’ presented at the ‘Blake at 250’ Conference, York University (2007), was also the outline of a chapter in this book In terms of funding, the research and completion of this book has to thank the Overseas Research Student Award from the Universities UK in paying a part of my PhD tuition fees and supporting my project of examining Blake’s Job copper plates in the British Museum A trip in 2002 to the United States, the Houghton Library (Harvard University), Yale University Art Gallery, and National Art Gallery (Washington DC) to examine Blake’s other original copper plates, was supported by a Stephen Copley Award from the British Association of Romantic Studies and research funding from St Mary’s College, Twickenham, research funding In 2003, the Paul Mellon Centre for British Art approved my project of visiting the Beinecke Library (Yale University) to examine a newly rediscovered set of Job proofs with their research support grants Partly with St Mary’s College research funding, I was also able to visit the Bodleian Library (Oxford University) to examine Blake’s early Richard Gough plates and W E Moss’s manuscripts, the Brotherton Library (Leeds University) for Ruthven Todd’s manuscripts, and Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge) for Blake’s Job proofs and the electrotypes of the Songs The Eleanor M Garvey Fellowship in Printing and Graphic Arts from the Houghton Library, Harvard University (2006-07) enabled me to study 200 or so printing copperplates in their collection In 2008, the BSA-ASECS Fellowship for Bibliographical Studies in the Eighteenth Century – viii – Acknowledgements ix from the Bibliographical Society of America, and the UK Printing Historical Society Grant also supported me with further research in this book Thanks to Angela Roche and Antony Griffiths at the Department of Prints & Drawings, British Museum, permission to take photographs of Job copper plates was granted Kind permissions to photograph for study purposes Blake’s and his contemporaries’ copper plates were given by the Prints & Drawings Room in the Victoria & Albert Museum, the National Art Gallery, Washington DC, and Yale University Art Gallery Generous help has been given by Craig Hartley at Prints and Drawings of Fitzwilliam Museum, Alan Jutzi at the Ahmanson Room of Huntington Library, and all the staff in the Rare Books Room of British Library, the Beinecke Library, the Rare Books of Bodleian Library, the Special Material of Brotherton Library, Fogg Museum of Art, Houghton Library, the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York, the Preston Library at Westminster Archive, St Bride’s Printing Library, Tate Britain, the National Art Library at V&A, and Yale Centre for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut Particular warm thanks are to all the friendly staff at the Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University, and the Houghton Library, Harvard University, especially Hope Mayo and Caroline Duroselle-Melish, the curators of Printing and Graphic Arts, for giving me the most delightful experience of examining the uncatalogued (hence unknown to the public) copperplates in the Houghton collection My personal thanks are to Professor Christopher Todd for sending me as a stranger a list of his father’s works, Ruthven Todd (1914-1978): A preliminary finding-list (2001) Professor Ian Short’s warm friendship came at my most helpless time in UCL My photographer friend Amingo (Yu-Ming Tsau) took photographs of the Job copper plates for me Professor Robert Essick gave me the opportunity to see his great Blake collection and information about them Dr Steve Clark and Dr Keri Davies generously gave me numerous and very useful information, support and help in the process of my research My deep gratefulness is to Professor Edward Larrissy for his support and countless references for my research applications I would also like to pay tribute to Professor Robert N Essick for his great contributions to Blake studies and generosity as a collector Much the same, Professor G E Bentley Jr.’s monumental works on Blake and his kind encouragement and suggestions to my PhD thesis are precious to me Finally, my most deep-hearted appreciation is for David Worrall and my parents, Ping-Yuan Sung and Ying-Mei Chung, as well as all my family in Taiwan, who give me everlasting support in every way This book is dedicated to them Grantham UK, 2008 ... their experiences as artistic printmakers in their books, Blake and the Idea of the Book (1993) and The Creation of the Songs (2000) Of course, the artistic background of these scholars has substantially... 18 William Blake and the Art of Engraving medium from engraving, the working method of the Large Colour Prints also shows some inconsistency, and breaks the ideal of unification of invention and. .. Essick’s theory of Blake s ‘unity of invention and execution’ is more fully presented in William Blake and the Language of Adam Although William Blake and the Language of Adam is not particularly