Chaucer's canterbury pilgrims. Copper engraving by william blake, with additions in watercolour by the artist
third state, 1810–20. In the collection of the morgan library
chaucer's canterbury pilgrims
copper engraving, with additions in watercolor by the artist
signature and imprint, painted in fresco by william blake & by him engraved
& published october 8. 1810, at no 28. Corner of broad street golden square;
inscribed below: chaucers canterbury pilgrims, and with the names of the
pilgrims, reeve, chaucer, clerk of oxenford, cook, miller, wife of bath,
merchant, parson, man of law, plowman, physician, franklin, 2 citizens,
shipman, the host, sompnour, manciple, pardoner, monk, friar, a citizen,
lady abbess, nun, 3 priests, squires, yeoman, knight, squire. This is a magnificent example of blake's largest print,
one of only three known impressions to which he added
watercolor. The engraving is known in five states,
and the present sheet is the only hand-colored example
of the third state of the image. Blake's use of line engraving,
emulating the styles of early printmakers albrecht dürer and
lucas van leyden, evokes the character of chaucer's poetry. Blake painted the pilgrims after a quarrel with r. H. Cromek
and thomas stothard regarding whether the commission had originally
been blake's. The painting was exhibited at his brother's
soho shop in 1809, and this engraving was created from it. Date: between 1810 and 1820.
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