Sotheby's William Blake Auction

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Apr 6th 2006 at 5:02PM

Sotheby's William Blake auction on May 2 in New York has an interesting story behind it. The Art Newspaper gives the extensive background on Blake's watercolor illustrations which accompany Robert Blair’s poem “The Grave” and actually form one complete set. The 19 individual works are selling for up to $1.5 to 2 million each. The works have been together for over 200 years (they were painted in 1805). Sotheby's says that they are still open to offer from museums interested in keeping the set together. The Yale Center for British Art in New Have has the only other watercolor from the set. The folio of works spent five generations in the family of watercolor artist John Stannard. They were sold in 2000 as part of a collection of ordinary books. The paintings were assumed to be prints until 2001 when two Yorkshire dealers took them to a specialist. The paintings were originally offered to the Tate and a prolonged dispute erupted. London dealer Libby Howie bought the Blakes for around £5 million on behalf of a small group of investors. After more failed negotiations with the Tate the paintings finally came to Sotheby's. Hopefully someone will step forward to keep this beautiful set together.

Tags: art, auction, museums, paintings, sothebys, watercolor, william blake