A king and others looking on at a group of shackled figures sitting on the ground by a tree
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

At left, a man with a long white beard stands in profile, dressed in a long red robe, wearing a crown, and holding a scepter. Soldiers wearing armor and holding spears stand around the king, and a woman in a white dress stands by them. As she points up at musical instruments hanging in a tree, they all look down at an elderly man with shackled feet who crouches on the ground, a woman and several small children sitting beside him. At right, two other men in shackles look on. In the distance, a river winds through an ancient city.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.404
People
William Blake, British (London, England 1757 - 1827 London, England)
Title
By the Waters of Babylon
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
1806
Culture
British
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/297976

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Watercolor, black ink and graphite on off-white wove paper
Dimensions
40.3 x 37.7 cm (15 7/8 x 14 13/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: W.B. 1806

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Thomas Butts; Thomas Butts, Jr., to; [Foster's, June 29, 1853, lot 133] sold; to H.G. Bohn. Joseph A. Paton, sold [Chapman's, Edinburgh, Nov. 10-12, 1874, lot 1189]. John Crosby, by 1876; Mrs. A. R. Crosby, sold [Sotheby's, London, April 6-8, 1925, lot 152, repr.]; to Frank Sabin. [Gabriel Wells, New York] sold; to Grenville L. Winthrop, 1925, 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
1943.404
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Martin Butlin, The Paintings and Drawings of William Blake, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT and London, England, 1981), no. 466, pl. 541
  • Harold Fisch, The Biblical Presence in Shakespeare, Milton, and Blake, The Clarendon Press (Oxford, England, 1999), fig. 2, pp. 293-295
  • Jeffrey Fontana, Timeless Beauty: Representing the Ideal in Necoclassical Drawing, brochure, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1999), checklist no. 3
  • Chikashi Kitazaki and Mina Oya, ed., Between Reality and Dreams: Nineteenth Century British and French Art from the Winthrop Collection of the Fogg Art Museum, exh. cat., National Museum of Western Art (Ueno, 2002), cat. no. 8, repr. (color)
  • Lowell Libson Ltd 2013, auct. cat., Lowell Libson Ltd (London, 2013), p. 54

Exhibition History

  • Timeless Beauty: Representing the Ideal in Neoclassical Drawing, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/07/1999 - 10/31/1999
  • Between Reality and Dreams: Nineteenth Century British and French Art from the Winthrop Collection of the Fogg Art Museum, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 09/14/2002 - 12/08/2002
  • Re-View: S426A (Large Niche) #1: The Past and the Present: British Art of the 19th Century, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 09/03/2010 - 11/20/2010

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