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Jun 13, 2012

The Holy Family (Christ in the Lap of Truth)

c. 1805

William Blake

(British, 1757–1827)

England, London, 18th century

Black, gray, and brown ink applied with pen and point of brush; gray, pink, yellow, and green wash

Sheet: 37.9 x 32.5 cm (14 15/16 x 12 13/16 in.)

John L. Severance Fund 1950.239

Catalogue raisonné: Butlin 471

Location

not on view

Did you know?

This drawing was first owned by Thomas Butts, an English civil servant who became William Blake's most important patron and supporter for about two decades.

Description

Although he rejected institutionalized religion, Blake was intensely spiritual, and much of his art was inspired by a highly personal reading of the Bible or by literature based upon it, such as John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667). The Virgin Mary is centered in this highly stylized composition. Upon her lap she clasps the infant Christ whose outstretched arms foreshadow the Crucifixion. The Mother and Child are flanked by Saint Joseph on the left, and Saint Anne (the Virgin’s mother), on the right. Below, Saint John the Baptist, who foretold Christ’s death and resurrection, plays with a lamb.

Inscriptions

Inscription

signed, lower right, in black ink: [artist's monogram:8 inv / wb]

Inscription

verso, upper center, in graphite: G [collector's mark? (not in Lugt)]

Inscription

across bottom, in graphite: no. 9 [S?]ingle

Inscription

across bottom, in graphite: The Holy Family / Jesus-Mary-Joseph-Elizabeth + St. John

Inscription

lower center, in graphite: 50/ [7?]

Provenance

after 1805-by 1845

Thomas Butts [1757-1845], London

probably after 1845-by 1853

Thomas Butts Jr.

1853

(his sale, Property of Thomas Butts, Esq., Messrs. Foster and Son, London, June 29, 1853, no. 127, sold to Henry George Bohn) ¹

1853-?

Henry George Bohn [1796-1884], London

?-1901

Alexander Anderdon Weston [1822-1901; Lugt 65], by descent to his widow

1901-1904

Mrs. Alexander Anderdon Weston

1904

(her anonymous sale, Christie's, London, June 28, 1904, no. 5, sold to E. Parsons)

1904

E. Parsons, sold to W. Graham Robertson

1904-1949

W. Graham Robertson [1866-1948], London

1949

(his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, Ltd., London, July 22, 1949, no. 24, probably sold to Thomas Agnew and Sons, London)

1949-1950

(Thomas Agnew and Sons, London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)

1950-

Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Provenance Footnotes

¹as Holy Family.

Citations

Gilchrist, Alexander and William Michael Rossetti. Life of William Blake: "Pictor Ignotus," with Selections from His Poems and Other Writings. London: R. Clay, Son, and Taylor, 1863. Mentioned: vol. 2, p. 230, no. 182

Exhibition of the Works of William Blake. Exh. Cat. London: Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1876. Mentioned: no. 144

Gilchrist, Alexander and William Michael Rossetti. Life of William Blake with Seleions from His Poems and Other Writings. London: Macmillan, 1880. Mentioned: vol. 2, p. 243, no. 207 or 209

Richter, Helene. William Blake. Strassburg: J.H. Ed. Heitz, 1906. Mentioned: p. 173; Reproduced: pl. V

Exhibition of Works by William Blake. Exh. Cat. London: Carfax and Co., Ltd., 1906. Mentioned: p. 19, no. 69

de Selincourt, Basil. William Blake. London: Duckworth, 1909. Mentioned: pp. 200-202; Reproduced: between pp. 200 and 201 archive.org

The Century of Art Exhibition of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters, and Gravers. Exh. Cat. London: Grafton Galleries, 1911. Mentioned: p. 35, no. 125

Russell, Archibald. "The Graham Robertson Collection." Burlington Magazine 37, no. 208 (July 1920): 27-29, 32-35, 39. Mentioned: p. 34 www.jstor.org

Russell, Archibald. William Blake (1757-1827). Exh. Cat. London: Tate Gallery, 1947. Mentioned: p. 37, no. 76

77th Annual Exhibition of Water-Colour Drawings. Exh. Cat. London: Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd., 1950. Mentioned: no. 74

Preston, Kerrison. The Blake Collection of W. Graham Robertson. London: Faber and Faber, 1952. Mentioned: pp. 144-45

Keynes, Sir Geoffrey. William Blake's Illustrations to the Bible. London: Trianon, 1957. Mentioned: pp. 30-31, no. 104; Reproduced: pl. 104

The Art of William Blake. Exh. Cat. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1957. Mentioned: p. 19, no. 26

The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 608 archive.org

Hawley, Henry. Neo-Classicism: Style and Motif. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1964. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 117, no. 122

Hoover, Suzanne. "Pictures at the Exhibition." Blake Newsletter 21 (1973): 6-13. Mentioned: pp. 8-9; Reproduced: fig. 3

Mellor, Anne Kostelanetz. Blake's Human Form Divine. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974. Mentioned: pp. 332-35; Reproduced: pl. 87

Butlin, Martin. The Paintings and Drawings of William Blake. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981. Mentioned: p. 351, no. 471, 484, under no. 671; Reproduced: pl. 556

Heppner, Christopher. Reading Blake's Designs. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Mentioned: p. 194

DeGrazia, Diane, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000. Mentioned: pp. 7, 188-89, no. 77; Reproduced: p. 189

Lemonedes, Heather. British Drawings: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Exh. Cat. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2013. Mentioned: p. 11, 54-55, 143, no. 16; Reproduced: p. 17 (detail), 55

Exhibition history

Exhibition of the Works of William Blake. Burlington Fine Arts Club, London (1876).

Exhibition of Works by William Blake. Carfax and Co. Ltd., London (June 14 - July 31, 1906).

The Century of Art Exhibition of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters, and Gravers. Grafton Galleries, London (June - July, 1911).

William Blake (1757 – 1827). Tate Gallery, London (1947).

77th Annual Exhibition of Water-Colour Drawings. Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London (organizer).

The Art of William Blake. National Gallery of Art, Landover, MD (organizer) (October 19-December 1, 1957).

Aspects of Drawing. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 10-April 2, 1961).

Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 11-September 10, 1963).

European Watercolors Through the 18th Century. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 14-March 22, 1964).

Neo-classicism: Style and Motif. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer).

Rococo, Revolution, Restoration. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 11-September 24, 1989).

Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002).

British Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art . The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-May 26, 2013).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=The Holy Family (Christ in the Lap of Truth)|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1950.239|author=William Blake|year=c. 1805|access-date=24 September 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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The Holy Family (Christ in the Lap of Truth)

The Holy Family (Christ in the Lap of Truth)

William Blake

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