Sunday, April 09, 2023

EVENING

National Gallery 
Evening

William Blake (1757–1827), Evening (c 1820-25), tempera on pine, 91.8 x 29.7 cm, The National Gallery of Art (Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Hanes, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art), Washington, DC. Courtesy of The National Gallery of Art. Courtesy of The National Gallery of Art.

Winter (c 1820-25) above and Evening (c 1820-25) below formed a pair for a fireside surround in the Norfolk rectory of Rev John Johnson. They show figures illustrating William Cowper’s poem The Task, book 4. Winter is taken from lines 120-129, and Evening from lines 243-260. Cowper was the patron’s cousin.

Tate
Winter

https://eclecticlight.co/2016/12/04/tygers-eye-the-paintings-of-william-blake-8-last-tempera-paintings/

https://www.nga.gov/research/gallery-archives/nga-history-timeline.html

Provenance

Rev. John Johnson; Canon Cowper Johnson; Bertram R. Vaughan Johnson; his widow; Rev. B. Talbot Vaughan Johnson; the Vaughan Johnson Trust; (sale, Sotheby's, 18 July 1979, no. 59); purchased by (Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London) for Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Hanes, Winston-Salem, North Carolina; gift 1990 to NGA.

When sold at Sotheby's on
18 July 1979, "Winter" fetched L30,000 while the
companion "Evening" fetched L21,000. Both were bought
by Thos. Agnew & Sons, L t d . , the first for the Tate
Gallery, the second for a private American collector.

Another post about these images.

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