- Title:
- The Chimney Sweeper (Plate 10)
- Additional Title(s):
- Verso: Spring (Plate 11)
- Part Of:
Collective Title: Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Copy F
- Date:
- 1789
- Materials & Techniques:
- Relief etching printed in green ink, with hand coloring in watercolor on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream wove paper
- Dimensions:
- Sheet: 7 1/4 x 4 3/4 inches (18.4 x 12.1 cm), Plate: 4 1/2 x 2 7/8 inches (11.4 x 7.3 cm), Plate: 4 1/2 x 2 7/8 inches (11.4 x 7.3 cm)
- Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Inscribed in graphite, upper center: "7"
Lettered inside image: "The Chimney Sweeper | When my mother died I was very young. | And my father sold me while yet my tongue, | Could scarcely cry weep weep weep weep. | So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep. | Theres little Tom Dacre who cried when his head | That curl'd like a lambs back, was shav'd, so I said. | Hush Tom never mind it, for when your head's bare. | You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair. | And so he was quiet. & that very night. | As Tom was a sleeping he had such a sight, | That thousands of sweepers Dick, Joe, Ned & Jack | Were all of them lock'd up in coffins of black, | And by came an Angel who had a bright key | And he open'd the coffins & set them all free. | Then down a green plain leaping laughing they run | And wash in a river and shine in the Sun. | Then naked & white, all their bags left behind. | They rise upon clouds, and sport in the wind. | And the Angel told Tom if he'd be a good boy, | He'd have God for his father & never want joy, | And so Tom awoke and we rose in the dark | And got with our bags & our brushes to work. | Tho' the morning was cold, Tom was happy & warm. | So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm."; Lettered on verso, inside image: "Spring | Sound the Flute! | Now it's mute. | Birds delight | Day and Night. | Nightingale, | In the dale | Lark in Sky | Merrily | Merrily Merrily to welcome in the (Year | Little Boy | Full of joy. | Little"
- Credit Line:
- Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
- Copyright Status:
- Public Domain
- Accession Number:
- B1978.43.1552
- Classification:
- Prints
- Collection:
- Prints and Drawings
- Subject Terms:
- branches | children | grazing | hills | historical subject | infant | leaf | sheep | sitting | text | vine | women
- 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:2488
- Export:
- XML
- IIIF Manifest:
- JSON
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