William Blake, 1757–1827, BritishText by Thomas Gray, 1716–1771, British
Title:
"Cytherea's Day..." (Design 45)
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 black ink upper right: "5"; in graphite center: "x"; on verso in black ink upper left: "6"; in graphite center: "x"
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1992.8.11(23)
Classification:
Drawings & Watercolors
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:
women | musical instruments | man | girls | light | flames | star | tree | trees | text | arrows | wings | flutes | violin | chariot | fiddle | bow | religious and mythological subject | literary theme | angel | branches | sun | dead | dancing | fire
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
An American's Passion for British Art - Paul Mellon's Legacy (Yale Center for British Art, 2007-04-18 - 2007-07-29)An American's Passion for British Art - Paul Mellon's Legacy (Royal Academy of Arts, 2007-10-20 - 2008-01-27)Paul Mellon's Legacy : A Passion for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2007-04-18 - 2007-07-29)The Line of Beauty : British Drawings and Watercolors of the Eighteenth Century (Yale Center for British Art, 2001-05-19 - 2001-08-05)The Human Form Divine - William Blake from the Paul Mellon Collection (Yale Center for British Art, 1997-04-02 - 1997-07-06)
Publications:
John Baskett, Paul Mellon's Legacy: a Passion for British Art: Masterpieces from the Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, p. 275-276, no. 70, pl. 70, N5220 M552 P38 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)David Bindman, William Blake's universe, Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd, London, 2024, p. 23, fig. 8, NJ18 .B57 A12 2024 (YCBA)William Blake, William Blake's water-colour designs for the poems of Thomas Gray, London, 1971, p. 54, NJ18 .B57 A15 G73 K49 + Oversize YCBAMartin Butlin, Paintings and Drawings of William Blake, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1981, p. 263, no. 335 46, NJ18 B57 B874 OVERSIZE (YCBA)Martin Butlin, William Blake, Tate Publishing, London, 1978, p. 73, no. 129, NJ18 .B57 B87 (LC)+ Oversize YCBAColin Cross, Blake revealed, William Blake : Discovery of a Masterwork , Observer, vol. 12, November 21, 1971, pp. 19-23, V 1245 Detached from Observer colour magazineMatthew Hargraves, William Blake and Paul Mellon : the life of the mind, Open Knowledge Foundation, New York, 2014, [ pp. 8-9 ], fig. 8, V 2557Matthew Hargraves, William Blake and Paul Mellon : the life of the mind, Open Knowledge Foundation, New York, 2014, [ pp. 8-9 ], fig. 8, http://openglam.org/2014/10/07/william-blake-and-paul-mellon-the-life-of-the-mindPatrick Noon, The human form divine : William Blake from the Paul Mellon Collection, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1997, p. 63, NJ18 .B57 N66 (LC) YCBAPaul Mellon's Legacy : a passion for British art [large print labels], , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, v. 2, no. 70, N5220 M552 P381 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)Irene Tayler, Blake's illustrations to the poems of Gray, Princeton, 1971, pp. 86-87, NJ18 .B57 A15 G73 T69 YCBAArnold 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 ArchiveFrank A. Vaughan, Again to the life of eternity : William Blake's illustrations to the poems of Thomas Gray, Selinsgrove and London, 1996, pp. 69-70, NJ18 .B57 A15 G73 V38 1996 (LC)+ Oversize YCBAWilliam Blake : Visionary, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, p. 33, fig. 12, NJ18.B57 A12 2020 OVERSIZE (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
In about 1795 the London bookseller Richard Edwards commissioned William Blake to provide illustrations for 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. Blake created 537 illustrations on 269 sheets (now in the British Museum, London), only a fraction of which were actually published. With the model of Blake’s watercolors for “Night Thoughts” in mind, Blake’s friend John Flaxman commissioned a set of watercolor illustrations of the poems of Thomas Gray as a birthday gift for his wife, Ann, known as Nancy. Again the pages of a standard edition of 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 Paul Mellon Collection, YCBA) were never intended for publication.\n\n On each of the pages of text Blake marked with a graphite “X” the lines that he intended to illustrate. The three pages displayed in the 2007 YCBA “Legacy Exhibition” convey something of the range and variety of Blake’s responses to Gray’s poetry. The image of Cythera’s day, from Gray’s ode celebrating the poet’s calling, is light and exuberant. Cythera, one of the Ionian Islands, was the center of a cult of Aphrodite. A group of levitating young devotees of the goddess of love dance and play instruments beneath a six-pointed star.\n\n Gallery label for Paul Mellon's Legacy: A Passion for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2007-04-18 - 2007-07-29)