As the ongoing Phase Four of the Blake Archive’s development – image acquisition – continues, we realize that the excess of Blake’s delights will keep the Archive staff busy for years to come. Since we last posted about acquisitions in March, we have acquired the following works from nine institutions:

Albertina Museum, Vienna

  • Urizen copy J

Auckland Libraries

  • America copy N
  • Europe copy I

Bodleian Library, Oxford

  • 54 images from Gough’s Sepulchral Monuments in Great Britain

Bridgeman/Manchester Art Gallery

  • 18 heads of poets
  • Jeroboam and the Man of God: water color

British Library

  • 2 miscellaneous impressions from There is No Natural Religion
  • 3 impressions from Songs of Innocence and of Experience copy a

Firestone Library, Princeton

  • America copy Q
  • Songs of Innocence copy T
  • Songs of Innocence and of Experience copy j

Fitzwilliam Museum

  • The Ghost of Abel copy B
  • 8 proof plates of Europe
  • 1 miscellaneous impression from of Jerusalem
  • 2 objects from A Small Book of Designs copy B
  • 1 painting (new photography for BUT 673)
  • 3 water color drawings
  • 2 color print drawings (new photography)
  • 1 monochrome wash drawing (for Tiriel)
  • 1 pencil drawing (sketch for Newton)

Morgan Library and Museum

  • 4 miscellaneous impressions from There is No Natural Religion
  • Songs of Innocence and of Experience copy e/K
  • Songs of Experience from Songs copy K

Tate Gallery

  • 12 color print drawings (new photography)
  • 2 paintings (new photography)
  • 2 water color drawings (BUT 812.3-2 and BUT 770 newly shot in segmented detail)

Especially noteworthy is the new photography for works that the Archive has already acquired and, in the case of the color print drawings, already published. As the quality of digitally produced images continues to improve, we will be able to update the searchable images available to users by replacing images that were scanned or photographed decades ago. The recently acquired digital images are coming in at unprecedented resolutions; the images of America N and Europe I, from Auckland Libraries, for instance, are 800 pixels/inch. (The images we currently make available for enlargement viewing are 300 pixels/inch.) The infinity within a grain of sand is becoming more visible. Clearly, readying the vast amount of acquired material for publication, as well as updating already published images, will test the devouring capacity of our editorial staff.

by Joe Fletcher
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