A fly in the ointment: Exploring the creative relationship between William Blake and Thomas Gray

Abstract

Between 1797 and 1799, William Blake added illustrations and poetic commentary to the poetry of Thomas Gray and presented the composite collaboration to the wife of his friend and supporter, John Flaxman. Although he was largely dependent on such friends for his commissioned work during this time,1 these were productive years for Blake overall: in 1797 he had completed 537 designs for Edward Young's ‘Night Thoughts’, 43 of which were selected to be engraved for a publication that, although financially unsuccessful, would become one of the artistic works by which Blake was chiefly known to his contemporaries. In contrast, Blake's Gray illustrations, a private commission to the Flaxmans, were nearly lost and, following their rediscovery in 1979, remained unpublished until 1922. Although critical interest in the Gray illustrations has slightly increased in the 30 years following the 1971 publication of the full-colour Trianon Press edition and of Irene Tayler's critical volume, these 116 designs are often only briefly considered or mentioned in Blake criticism and remain largely unexplored. This is unfortunate, for not only are the designs excellent examples for those who wish to explore the dynamics of Blake's temporally and methodologically staggered collaborations, but Blake's small textual additions to the Gray volume crucially hint at his own perceptions of the function of illustration.

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