Queen Katherine's Dream

c. 1825

William Blake

Associated Names
William Blake

Artist, British, 1757 - 1827

This is a drawing featuring small, floating people ascending in a spiral, with one woman in the center, looking up at them. She is reclining on a couch or bed, and has her arms raised. She wears a pale blue dress and a white cloth over her long hair. The swirling figures emerge from the ground and rise upwards, creating a dynamic movement. They appear to be dancing, some holding instruments or baskets. Two of them appear to place a crown on the central woman. At the left and right edges of the bed are two seated figures who both appear to sleep in their chairs. On the left is a man with long white hair and a long white beard who wears a teal robe, and on the right is another woman who wears a yellow-green dress and has dark hair. Both of these people have their heads resting in their hands, with their elbows on the arms of their chair. The women and the floating people have blue-white skin, and the man on the left has pale peach skin.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    pen and ink with watercolor heightened with white and gold over graphite

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Dimensions

    Overall: 41.2 x 34.6 cm (16 1/4 x 13 5/8 in.)
    mat: 71.1 x 55.9 cm (28 x 22 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1943.3.9129

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Butlin 1981, no. 549

  • Series Title

    Shakespeare's Henry VIII

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(unidentified collector), LJR (Lugt Supp.1760b)

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1940

  • Master Drawings: An Exhibition of Drawings from American Museums and Private Collections, Palace of Fine Arts, Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco, CA, 1940, no. 4, repro.

1952

  • Watercolors by the Masters: Dürer to Cézanne, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1952, no. 29.

1957

  • The Art of William Blake, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1957, no. 33.

1968

  • Romantic Art in Britain: Paintings and Drawings 1760-1860, Detroit Institute of Arts and Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1968, no. 97, repro.

1978

  • Master Drawings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art and Promised Gifts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1978, p. 91.

1982

  • Lessing J. Rosenwald: Tribute to a Collector, NGA, 1982, no. 17, repro.

1987

  • English Drawings and Watercolors, 1630-1850, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1987-1988, no cat.

1997

  • Six Centuries/Six Artists, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1997.

2006

  • The Artist's Vision: Romantic Traditions in Great Britain, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2006 - 2007

Bibliography

1944

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Masterpieces of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1944: 150, color repro.

1975

  • Fine 1975, IV.A.33.

1981

  • Butlin, Martin. The Paintings and Drawings of William Blake. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981.

1982

  • Fine, Ruth E. Lessing J. Rosenwald: Tribute to a Collector. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1982, no. 17.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 677, no. 1084, color repro.

Inscriptions

lower right: W Blake inv

Wikidata ID

Q64636513

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