The Poems of Thomas Gray, Design 17, "Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College."

William Blake, 1757–1827, British, The Poems of Thomas Gray, Design 17, "Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College.", between 1797 and 1798

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Creator:: William Blake, 1757–1827
Title:: The Poems of Thomas Gray, Design 17, "Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College."
Additional Title(s):: Verso: The Poems of Thomas Gray, Design 18, "Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College."
There Shall the Fury Passions Tear, The Vultures of the Mind
Part Of:: Collective Title: The Poems of Thomas Gray
Date:: between 1797 and 1798
Materials & Techniques:: Watercolor with pen and black ink and graphite on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream wove paper with inlaid letterpress page
Dimensions:: Sheet: 16 1/2 x 12 3/4 inches (41.9 x 32.4 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:: Inscribed in gray ink upper right: "5"; in graphite upper center: "+"; on verso in black ink upper left: "6"; in graphite center: "+"
Credit Line:: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:: Public Domain
Accession Number:: B1992.8.11(9)
Classification:: Drawings & Watercolors
Collection:: Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:: ball | bat | birds | boys | cave | girls | hat | hoop | literary theme | men | monsters | nest (animal architecture) | night | serpent | stick | text | trees | wings | women
Associated Places:: Berkshire | England | Eton College | United Kingdom | Windsor
Access:: Accessible by appointment in the Study Room [Request]
Note: The Study Room is open by appointment. Please visit the Study Room page on our website for more details.
Link:: https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:3604
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IIIF Manifest:: JSON

B1992.8.11(9, 23) The towering genius of William Blake finds it's most complete expression in the fusion of his poetry and visual imagery in his great illuminated books, yet Blake was also a forceful but sensitive artistic interpreter of other texts. His illustration of the work of other poets is at once both wonderfully imaginative and oddly literal-minded. Thus "the vultures of the mind" in Thomas Gray's "ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College" become phantasmagoric birdlike apparitions, and "glitt'ring shafts of war" in "Progress of Poesy become a prickly aureole of arrows. In about 1795 the London book seller Richard Edwards commissioned Blake to provide illustrations to a deluxe edition of Edward Young's Night Thoughts. A standard edition of the poem was taken apart and the pages mounted on large sheets of paper on which Blake drew and colored his designs. In all Blake created 537 illustrations on 269 sheets (now in the British Museum), only a fraction of which were actually published. With the model for Blake's watercolors for Night Thoughts in mind, Blake's friend John Flaxman commissioned a set of watercolor illustrations of the poems of Thoams Gray as a gift for his wife Nancy. Again, the pages of a standard edition o9f the poems were mounted on large sheets, perhaps left over from the earlier project, on which Blake created his watercolor illustrations. Unlike his illustrations to Night Thoughts, these 116 watercolors on fifty-eight sheets (all now in the Yale Center for British Art) were never intended for publication.

Scott Wilcox

Wilcox, Forrester, O'Neil, Sloan. The Line of Beauty: British Drawings and Watercolors of the Eighteenth Century. Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2001. pg. 48, cat. no. 36, N5220 M552 P38 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)

The Line of Beauty : British Drawings and Watercolors of the Eighteenth Century (Yale Center for British Art, 2001-05-19 - 2001-08-05) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

The Human Form Divine - William Blake from the Paul Mellon Collection (Yale Center for British Art, 1997-04-02 - 1997-07-06) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

William Blake - His Art & Times (Art Gallery of Ontario, 1982-12-03 - 1983-02-06) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

William Blake - His Art & Times (Yale Center for British Art, 1982-09-15 - 1982-11-14) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

David Bindman, William Blake : His art and times, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1982, p. 127, no. 63c, NJ18 .B57 B524 (LC)+ Oversize YCBA [ORBIS]

William Blake, William Blake's water-colour designs for the poems of Thomas Gray, London, 1971, pp. 46-47, , des. no. 18, NJ18 .B57 A15 G73 K49 + Oversize YCBA [ORBIS]

Martin Butlin, Paintings and Drawings of William Blake, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1981, p. 259, no. 335 18, NJ18 B57 B874 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Colin Cross, Blake revealed, William Blake : Discovery of a Masterwork , Observer, vol. 12, November 21, 1971, pp. 19-23, V 1245 Detached from Observer colour magazine [ORBIS]

Patrick Noon, The human form divine : William Blake from the Paul Mellon Collection, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1997, p. 60, NJ18 .B57 N66 (LC) YCBA [ORBIS]

John Russell, Blake the Craftsman, Art , Sunday Times, Issue no. 7749, December 12, 1971, p. 27, Sunday Times Digital Archive [ORBIS]

Irene Tayler, Blake's illustrations to the poems of Gray, Princeton, 1971, p. 37, NJ18 .B57 A15 G73 T69 YCBA [ORBIS]

Arnold Fawcus, Unknown Watercolours by William Blake, Illustrated London News, vol. 259, No. 6881, December 25, 1971, p. 50 and p. 51, Illustrated London News Historical Archive [ORBIS]

Frank A. Vaughan, Again to the life of eternity : William Blake's illustrations to the poems of Thomas Gray, Selinsgrove and London, 1996, pp. 51-52, NJ18 .B57 A15 G73 V38 1996 (LC)+ Oversize YCBA [ORBIS]

Scott Wilcox, Line of beauty : British drawings and watercolors of the eighteenth century, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2001, p. 48, no. 36, NC228 W53 2001 (YCBA) [YCBA]

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