A giant holding a horn kneels beneath a stone archway.
recto Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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recto Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

At left, in front of a tall brick wall, a bearded giant man kneels on the ground, facing the viewer and holding a horn in his left hand. Two figures, ankle high to the giant, stand at lower left. Light washes of pale red color piles of rubble and brick buildings that are seen in the background, and a gray jagged stone archway curves in from left, over the giant’s head. On the reverse of this page is a quick, lightly sketched version of this image in pencil.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.431
People
William Blake, British (London, England 1757 - 1827 London, England)
Title
The Complaint of the Giant Nimrod (from Dante's "Divine Comedy"); verso: slight black chalk sketch for recto
Other Titles
Series/Book Title: Dante, "The Divine Comedy"
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
1824-1827
Culture
British
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/297947

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Watercolor, black ink, graphite, and black chalk on off-white antique laid paper; verso: black chalk
Dimensions
52.9 × 37.2 cm (20 13/16 × 14 5/8 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: ll: HELL Canto 31

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Grenville Lindall Winthrop, New York, bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.431
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

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Publication History

  • Agnes Mongan, "The Fogg Art Museum's Collection of Drawings", Harvard Library Bulletin, Harvard University (Cambridge, 1958), vol. 3, no. 2, March, pp. 5-9, p. 202
  • Martin Butlin, The Paintings and Drawings of William Blake, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT and London, England, 1981), no. 812 (61), pl. 1058
  • David Bindman, William Blake: The Divine Comedy/Die göttliche Komödie/La divine comédie, Bibliothèque de l'Image (Paris, 2000), pl. 64 (color)

Exhibition History

  • 32Q: 2220 18th-19th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/24/2022 - 05/02/2022

Related Objects

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu