BLAKE WILLIAM (1757-1827)

Lot 6
Go to lot
Estimation :
4000 - 5000 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 23 400EUR
BLAKE WILLIAM (1757-1827)
English poet, painter and printmaker. Signed document signed « William Blake », one page, oblong small octavo (dimensions: 7,7 x 18,8 cm), 5 July, 1805; in English. An extremely rare autograph of the great poet and artist William Blake made out to his patron and collector Thomas Butts. Receipt: “Received of Mr. Butts five Pounds seven Shillings on further account.” The year 1805 was a hard one for Blake. His works were filled with visions of death and, when several of his patrons drifted away, his financial situation darkened, bringing him to a selfdescribed state of “despair.” “But there was one patron who never seemed to doubt his genius and...Thomas Butts...took over the role of Blake’s principal employer; for the next five years he gave him regular payments that allowed him to maintain a steady if modest income” [Peter Ackroyd, Blake, 1996]. Butts’s support and confidence gave Blake new hope and a new artistic vision and he suddenly produced works for Butts that showed “an exultant spirituality that is quite new in Blake’s art. There is also more splendour and nobility in the conception of the human figures, who seem touched by some mystery, a mystery that Blake characteristically suggests through the powerful use of light” [Ackroyd, Blake, 1996].
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue