The Poems of Thomas Gray, Design 35, "Ode to Adversity."
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: "1"; on verso in black ink upper left: "2"; in gray ink upper center: "Ode to Adversity | Design | 1. A Widower & children | 2. Grief among the roots of trees | 3. 'Purple tyrant vainly groans' | 4. 'Stern rugged Nurse' | Virtue Nursd in the Lap of Adversity | 5. 'In thy Gorgon terrors clad | Screaming horrors funeral cry | Despair & Fell Disease & Ghastly Poverty' | 6. 'Oh gently on thy suppliants head | Dread Goddess lay thy chastening hand' "
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1992.8.11(18)
Classification:
Drawings & Watercolors
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:
tombstone | man | women | men | infant | children | text | children | headstone | cemetery | axe | graveyard | trees | literary theme | mourning | religious and mythological subject | roots
Currently On View:
Not on view
Publications:
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 magazineArnold Fawcus, Unknown Watercolours by William Blake, Illustrated London News, vol. 259, No. 6881, December 25, 1971, pp. 45-46, 49-51, Illustrated London News Historical Archive