National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: The Last Supper
  • Inscription
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

No overview.

Inscription

lower left in monogram: WB inv.

Marks and Labels

null

Provenance

Painted for Thomas Butts [1757-1845];[1] by descent to Thomas Butts, Jr. (sale, Messrs. Foster, London, 29 June 1853, no. 87), bought by J.C. Strange, Highgate. (B.F. Stevens and Brown), London. Graham Robertson [1866-1948]; (his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 22 July 1949, No. 102), bought by the William Blake Trust, whose Trustees sold it 1951 to Lessing J. Rosenwald, Philadelphia; gift to NGA, 1954.

[1] This is one of over 135 illustrations to the Bible painted for Thomas Butts, Blake's most important patron.

Exhibition History

1799
Royal Academy, London, 1799, no. 154.
1951
The Tempera Paintings of William Blake, Arts Council of Great Britain, London, 1951, no. 29, pl. 8.
1957
The Art of William Blake, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1957, no. 1.
1982
William Blake: His Art and Times, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. London, 1982: 38, fig. 22.
2001
Il Genio e le Passioni. Leonardo e il Cenacolo. Precedenti, innovazioni, riflessi di un capolavoro, Palazzo Reale, Milan, 2001, no. 141, repro.

Bibliography

1863
Rossetti, William. Annotated Catalogue. In Gilchrist, Alexander. Life of William Blake, "Pictor Ignotus." 2 vols. London and Cambridge, 1863: 2:no. 23.
1957
Keynes, Sir Geoffrey. William Blake's Illustrations to the Bible. Clairvaux (The Trianon Press), 1957: xiii, no. 132, repro. pl. vi, color repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 15
1968
European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 8, repro.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 30, repro.
1976
Rosenwald, Lessing J. Recollections of a Collector. New York, 1976: 100.
1977
Bindman, David. Blake as an Artist. Oxford, 1977: 124, 127, 128.
1978
Paley, Morton D. William Blake. Oxford, 1978: 55, pl. 80.
1981
Butlin, Martin. The Paintings and Drawings of William Blake. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981.
1982
Bindman, David. William Blake: His Art and Times. Exh. cat. Yale Center for British Art, New Haven; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. London, 1982: 38, fig. 22.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 49, repro.
1992
Hayes, John. British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 14-17, repro. 15.

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