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Comus Disguised as a Shepherd (Illustration to Milton's "Comus")
William Blake (English, 1757–1827)
about 1815
Medium/Technique
Pen and watercolor on paper
Dimensions
Sheet: 15.3 x 12.3 cm (6 x 4 13/16 in. )
Mount: 16.3 x 13.4 cm (6 7/16 x 5 1/4 in.)
Mount: 16.3 x 13.4 cm (6 7/16 x 5 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase with funds donated by Mrs. John L. Gardner and George N. Black
Accession Number90.120
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope, Prints and Drawings
ClassificationsWatercolors
Catalogue Raisonné
Butlin 528 [02]
ProvenanceBefore 1852, Edward Vernon Utterson (b. 1776? - d. 1856), London; July 5 - 8, 1852, anonymous sale (Utterson), Sotheby's, London, lot 253 to Thomas Butts, Jr., London, for £4.6.0 (price for lot); June 29, 1853, Butts sale, Foster and Son, London, lot 98, sold to J. C. Strange, Highgate, for £6.6.0 (price for lot); sold or consigned by Strange to Bernard Quaritch, Ltd., London; August 1883, offered by Quaritch as part of item 13842, catalogue 350, for £1,200 [see note 1]; 1890, sold by Quaritch to the MFA [see note 2]. (Accession Date: April 29, 1890)
NOTES:
NOTE 1: A group of 17 Blake watercolors and drawings for John Milton's Comus and Paradise Lost, as well as 9 Biblical scenes, were first offered together in Bernard Quaritch's catalogue 350, August 1883. The group did not sell, and was offered again in October 1883, May 1885, May 1887, and early 1890, when the works were shown in the United States, as advertised in A Hand-List of a Peerless Collection of Books and Manuscripts exhibited to the Bibliophiles of America. The Blakes were priced at £1,000 or $5,000.
NOTE 2: The watercolors were purchased by the MFA with funds provided by Mrs. John L. Gardner and George N. Black.
NOTES:
NOTE 1: A group of 17 Blake watercolors and drawings for John Milton's Comus and Paradise Lost, as well as 9 Biblical scenes, were first offered together in Bernard Quaritch's catalogue 350, August 1883. The group did not sell, and was offered again in October 1883, May 1885, May 1887, and early 1890, when the works were shown in the United States, as advertised in A Hand-List of a Peerless Collection of Books and Manuscripts exhibited to the Bibliophiles of America. The Blakes were priced at £1,000 or $5,000.
NOTE 2: The watercolors were purchased by the MFA with funds provided by Mrs. John L. Gardner and George N. Black.