1915.8: The Angel Michael Binding Satan ("He Cast him into the Bottomless Pit, and Shut him up")

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1915.8

People

William Blake, British (London, England 1757 - 1827 London, England)

Title

The Angel Michael Binding Satan ("He Cast him into the Bottomless Pit, and Shut him up")

Classification

Drawings

Work Type

drawing

Date

c. 1805

Culture

British

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/298817

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Watercolor, black ink, and graphite on off-white wove paper

Dimensions

35.9 x 32.5 cm (14 1/8 x 12 13/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Thomas Butts, to; Thomas Butts, Jr., untraced sale; Fuller by 1863; H.A.J. Munro, sale [Christie's, London, April 23-24, 1868, lot 499] to; Kibble. Marsden J. Perry by 1905, sold; to W.A. White, 1908, gift; to Fogg Art Museum, 1915

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of W. A. White

Accession Year

1915

Object Number

1915.8

Division

European and American Art

Contact

am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Publication History

• Catalogue of the Collection of Ancient and Modern Engravings, Ancient Drawings . . . of the late H.A.J. Munro, Esq., auct. cat., Christie, Manson and Woods, Ltd. (London, April 22-24, 1868), [third day] lot 499
• Catalogue of Books, Engravings, Water-colors & Sketches by William Blake, exh. cat., The Grolier Club (New York, 1905), p. 127, cat. no. 90e
• Fogg Art Museum Handbook, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1936), ill. p. 112
• Anthony Blunt, "Blake's Pictoral Imagination", Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes (1943), Vol. 6, pp. 190-212, p. 199, repr. as pl. 56c
• "Blake at 200", Time (December 23, 1957), p. 52, repr.
• Search for Innocence: Primitive and Primitivistic Art of the 19th Century, exh. cat., University of Maryland (College Park, MD, 1975), pp. 75-77, cat. no .7, repr. p 77 as fig. 21
• Corlette Rossiter Walker, William Blake in the Art of His Time, exh. cat., University Art Museum, University of California Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara, 1976), p. 20, cat. no. 1, repr. cover and frontispiece
• Martin Butlin, The Paintings and Drawings of William Blake, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT and London, England, 1981), no. 524, pl. 585
• Kathleen Raine, The Human Face of God: William Blake and the Book of Job, Thames & Hudson (London, 1982), pp. 229, 232, pl. 108
• Jerry D. Meyer, "The Woman Clothed with the Sun: Two Illustrations to St. John's Revelation by William Blake", Studies in Iconography, Arizona State University (Tempe, 1988), Vol. 12, pp. 151-152, repr. p. 151 as fig. 3
• Kathleen Campbell, "Mysticism, Science and Technology", Exposure, Society for Photographic Education (Dallas, TX, 1997), vol. 31 1/2, fig. 5, p. 7
• Nancy Grubb, Revelations of the Apocalypse, Abbeville Press (New York, London, Paris, 1997), repr. p. 111 (color)
• Michael Löwy and Robert Sayre, Romanticism Against the Tide of Modernity, Duke University Press (Durham/London, 2001), repr. on cover (color)
• Carl-Johan Malmberg, Stjärnan I Foten: dikt och bild bok och tanke hos William Blake, Wahlström & Widstrand (Stockholm, 2013), repr. in color on p. 350; p. 447
• Kenneth Gross, "Blake and Bloom, a Memorial Note", Blake/ An Illustrated Quarterly (Winter 2019-2020), Vol. 53, no. 3, repr.

Exhibition History

• Exhibition of the Works of William Blake, The Grolier Club, 01/26/1905 - 02/25/1905
• Watercolors from the Fogg: An Historical Collection, St. Paul's School, Concord, 10/12/1971 - 11/20/1971
• Search for Innocence: Primitive and Primitivistic Art of the 19th Century, University of Maryland Art Gallery, 10/29/1975 - 12/10/1975
• William Blake in the Art of His Time, University Art Museum, University of California Santa Barbara, 02/24/1976 - 03/28/1976

Verification Level