Blake em Nova Iorque

Ilustrações de William Blake estiveram em exposição desde 11 de Setembro de 2009, a 3 de Janeiro de 2010, no Morgan Library & Museum, em Nova Iorque com o título:

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"A New Heaven Is Begun"

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Visitei-a virtualmente e fiz as seguintes escolhas:

William Blake, Melancholy, Illustration to Milton's “Il Penseroso” c. 1816-20

Watercolor, over traces of black chalk

John Milton: Il Penseroso (1645)

...

Come pensive nun, devout and pure,
Sober, steadfast, and demure,
...
With even step, and musing gait,
And looks commercing with the skies,
They rapt soul sitting in thine eye:
There held in holy passion still (lines 31–32, 38–41)

Mirth, illustration to Milton's L'Allegro

Pen and brush, black and gray ink, watercolor, 161 x 121 mm, The Pierpont Morgan Library

The Sun at His Eastern Gate from John Milton’s L’Allegro

Pen and brush, black and gray ink, and watercolor, 161 x 121 mm, The Pierpont Morgan Library

"Miltons L'Allegro and Il Penseroso

The Morgan preserves Blake's twelve watercolor designs for Milton's early poems L'Allegro and Il Penseroso that contrast the cheerful man with the melancholic, thoughtful one. Like the illustrations for the Book of Job, Blake created them on commission for Thomas Butts about 1816–20. The two series were separated in 1903 and not reunited until 1949, when they were acquired as the first purchase by the Morgan's newly formed Association of Fellows. Milton, along with Dante and the Bible, was one of Blake's great inspirations. Blake wrote a long and mystical poem, Milton, and executed several other series of illustrations for Milton's works. Each of the watercolors in this series is accompanied by Blake's transcription of the relevant portion of the poem as well as his notes on his design".

http://www.themorgan.org/collections/works/blake/work.asp?id=onDisplay&page=51