Satan Calling Up His Legions

Physical description

Dark tempera painting in black and gold tones entitled 'Satan Calling Up His Legions'.

Place of Origin

Great Britain, UK (made)

Date

ca. 1809 (painted)

Artist/maker

Blake, William, born 1757 - died 1827 (painter (artist))

Materials and Techniques

Tempera on canvas

Dimensions

Height: 21.5 in approx., Width: 16.5 in approx., Height: 605 mm frame, Width: 486 mm frame, Depth: 40 mm frame

Object history note

Given by the executors of W. Graham Robertson through the National Art Colletions Fund, 1950

Descriptive line

Tempera painting entitled 'Satan Calling Up His Legions' by William Blake. Great Britain, ca. 1809.

Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)

Butlin, Martin. William Blake. exh.cat. Tate Gallery: London, 1978, p. 106-107, cat. no. 208
The following is the full text of the entry:

"208 Satan Calling up his Legions c.1800-09
Tempera on canvas, approx. 21½ x 16½ (54.5 x 42).
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
An illustration to Milton's Paradise LostI, 300-34; the ninth of Blake's exhibits. In his Catalogue Blake described this as 'a composition for a more perfect Picture, afterwards executed for a Lady of high rank [No.209]. An experiment Picture'. By this last he meant an experiment in technique, and he describes how it was 'painted at intervals, for experiment on colours without any oily vehicle .... The great labour which has been bestowed on it, that is, three or four times as much as would have finished a more perfect Picture ... has destroyed the lineaments; it was with difficulty brought back again to a certain effect, which it had at first, when all the lineaments were perfect'. His difficulties were the result of the 'temptations and perturbations ... of that infernal machine called Chiaro Oscuro, in the hands of Venetian and Flemish Demons ... '. He continued by attacking Titian, Rubens ('a most outrageous demon') and Correggio ('a soft and effeminate, and consequently a most cruel demon').
His concluding words, that 'These experiment Pictures have been bruized and knocked about without mercy, to try all experiments', seem, alas, only too true. The two other 'experiment pictures' in his exhibition, 'The Goats' (a subject 'taken from the Missionary Voyage', in which the missionaries' goats had stripped off the vine leaves that clothed the savage girls) and 'The Spiritual Preceptor' (a subject 'taken from the Visions of Emanuel Swedenborg'), have disappeared, as have two further temperas in Blake's exhibition, 'The Ancient Britons' and 'A Spirit vaulting from a Cloud ... ' (see No.254). This picture, like Nos.206-7, belonged to Samuel Palmer."
Butlin, Martin. The paintings and drawings of William Blake. Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art by Yale University Press, New Haven; London, 1981, p. 479, cat. no. 661
The following is the full text of the entry:

"661 SATAN CALLING UP HIS LEGIONS, AN EXPERIMENT
PICTURE c.1795-1800
The Victoria and Albert Museum (P.8-1950)
Tempera on canvas, approx. 21½ X 16½ (54.5 X 42).

Coll: Samuel Palmer by 1876; A. H. Palmer, sold anonymously Christie's 20 March 1882 (109) £ 13.13.0 bt, Dowdeswell; E. Parsons, sold 30 June 1910 to W. Graham Robertson, offered Christie's 22 July 1949 (55) £73.10.0 bt, in and given 1950 by his executors to the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Exh: Blake's exhibition 1809 (9); B.F.A.C. 1876 (211); Arts Council 1951 (7); Tate Gallery 1978 (208, repr.).
Lit: Blake Descriptive Catalogue 1809, pp. 54-9 (reprinted in Keynes Writings 1957, pp. 582-3); Rossetti 1863, p. 207 no. 47, and 1880, p. 214 no. 51; Preston 1952, pp. 89-91 no. 25, repr. pl. 25; Collins Baker and Wark 1957, p. 16; Bindman 1977, pp. 169, 187; Paley 1978, p. 52, repr. pl. 65.
Repr: Keynes Writings 1927, III, pl. 44.

Paradise Lost,I, 300-34. Blake's full title was 'Satan calling up his Legions, from Milton's Paradise Lost; a composition for a more perfect Picture, afterward executed for a Lady of high rank [see No. 662]. An experiment Picture'. He describes how it was 'painted at intervals, for experiment on colours, without any oily vehicle; ... the labour has destroyed the lineaments, it was with difficulty brought back again to a certain effect, which it had at first, when all the lineaments were perfect'. He then attacks 'that infernal machine, called Chiaro Oscuro ... of Venetian and Flemish Demons', particularly Titian, Rubens and Correggio, to whom he opposes the 'Artists who study in the Florentine and Roman Schools'. He ends by noting that 'These experiment Pictures have been bruized and knocked about, without mercy, to try all experiments'. The picture was restored by Dr. Hell in 1950.
Rossetti, on the basis of Blake's remark that it was 'painted at intervals', dates it c.1803, that is before the versions of the same subject in the two series of watercolour illustrations to Paradise Lost (Nos. 529 1and 536 1). In these the composition is more compact. The figure-style is close to that of Blake' s illustrations to Urizen (cf. especially the crouching figure b.r. with plate 7) so that the date may be still earlier. The diffuseness and asymmetry of the composition seem to precede the illustrations to the Bible of c.1803 onwards."
Victoria and Albert Museum, Department of Prints and Drawings and Department of Paintings, Accessions 1950, London: HMSO, 1962.
The full text of the record is as follows:

'BLAKE, William (1757-1827)

Satan calling up his legions. (R List I, 51)
Tempera on canvas.
P.8-1950

Given by the executors of W. Graham Robertson through the National Art-Collections Fund

Note: This painting was formerly in the collection of T. Butts, Samuel Palmer, A.H. Palmer, E. Parsons and W. Graham Robertson. It was Lot 55 at Messrs. Christie's, 22 July 1949 (Graham Robertson sale) where it was bought in.

It was exhibited at Blake's Exhibition, 1809, No.9 Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1876, No.211; Arts Council 'Tempera Paintings of William Blake', 1951, No.7. It is described and illustrated in The Blake Collection of W. Graham Robertson, London, 1952, No.25. In his Descriptive Catalogue Blake called this painting 'a composition for a more perfect picture, afterwards executed for a Lady of high rank. An experiment picture'. The 'Lady of high rank' was the Countess of Egremont and the finished picture is now in the Leconfield Collection at Petworth. In the Department of Paintings in this Museum is a somewhat similar composition by Blake in watercolour, F.A.697; others are in the two sets of drawings for Paradise Lost in the Huntington Library, California, and in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, U.S.A.'
W.M. Rossetti, Annotated Lists of Blake's Paintings, Drawings and Engravings (in Alexander Gilchrist's The Life of William Blake Vol. II, second edition, London, 1880)
The Blake Collection of W. Graham Robertson, London, 1952

Exhibition History

Blake 1809 (Tate 20/04/2009-20/10/2009)

Materials

Canvas; Tempera

Techniques

Painting

Subjects depicted

Satan

Categories

Paintings

Collection code

PDP