This recently discovered drawing has caused great excitement amongst William Blake scholars. Martin Butlin, who published the seminal reference book The Paintings and Drawingsof William Blake (1981), firmly believes that the work is by Blake, arguing that it belongs to a series of copies Blake made in 1822 for his friend John Linnell - after the set of twelve ‘Paradise Lost’ watercolors that he had earlier painted for Thomas Butts in 1808.¹ The ‘Butts’ watercolors are now widely dispersed and the prototype for the present lot is held at the Museum of Fine Art in Boston.²The image depicts Book 4, lines 799-819, from John Milton’s epic poem, in which the angels Ithuriel and Zephon keep guar🐓d over the sleeping Adam and Eve in order to protect them against Satan who, having taken the form of a frog, has made his way into the ꦓgarden of Eden.

Three other watercolors by Blake survive from Linnell’s 1822 commission and their characteristics reassure Butlin of his attribution. Satan Watching the Endearments of Adam and Eve and The Creation of Eve are both in Melbourne, Australia at the National Gallery of Victoria, while Michael foretells the Crucifixion is in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.³ Although Blake deviated conside❀rably from his 1808 composition in the Fitzwilliam drawing, Butlin points out that, as with the present watercolor, the two M๊elbourne works closely, ‘though not exactly,’ follow their prototypes.

In reaching his conclusions, Butlin discussed the present work with the paper expert Peter Bower. Bower has confirmed that the sheet was made by William Balston, Jꦆames Whatman the Younger’s successor at Springfield Mill, and that Blake often used this paper in the 1820s. Bower also confirmed that the Melbourne and Cambridge drawings are each on laid paper, possibly made by Smith, Warner & Co.

Despite Butlin’s continued confidence in the work, several scholars and Blake enthusiasts, including Da෴vid Bindman, Robert N. Essick and Joseph Viscomi, have questioned its authenticity. They have raised concerns about the draftsmanship, the palette and the work’s very close reliance on the 1808 watercolor. Furthermore, they are disturbed that the work is drawn on wove paper, not laid paper, as well🌱 as the fact that it lacks any provenance.

Butlin dismisses these opinions, stating that the style of the watercolor is ‘very similar’ to the Melbourne works, and that he feels the same about its coloring. Nor is he perturbed by the fact that the present work is on wove paper, pointing out that there are other cases where Blake used different types of paper when working on a single project.⁴ Finally, concerning provenance, he looks to the emergence of other important works that had previously escaped the attention of scholars; including the watercolor illustrations to The Grave, and the ‘Arlington Court’ tempera painting.⁵

While the arguments for and against the acceptance of the attribution continue to be debated, in the light of the information put forward by Martin Butlin and Peter Bower, it must still be considered a strong possibility that the watercolor is a genuine work by William Blake, originating, as Butlin argues, from the series of Paradise Lost, illustrations that Blake made for John Linnell in꧂ 1822.

1. For Thomas Butts' series, see M. Butlin, The Paintings and Drawings of William Blake, New Haven, 1981, vol. 1: pp. 385-86, no. 536.5

2. MFA: Accession no. 90.102

3. Butlin, op. cit., 2017

4. An example of this is Blake’s illustrations for Blair’s The Grave, where three different papers are used.

5. See: New York, Sotheby's, William Blake’s Designs for Blair’s Grave, 2 May 2006, and Arlington Court, Devon (Nation♛al Trust).