William Blake

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William Blake
1757-1827
Job's Evil Dreams
Pen and black ink and wash, watercolor, over graphite, on paper.
9 1/2 x 11 3/8 inches (236 x 288 mm)
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1909.
2001.73
Notes: 

One of twenty-one original drawings executed for Thomas Butts, ca. 1805-10, illustrating the Book of Job. This sheet is no. 11 in the series.

Inscription: 

Signed in pen and black ink at lower right, "inv WB".

Provenance: 
Thomas Butts; Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Lord Houghton (1809-1885); Robert Offley Ashburton Milnes, 4th Baron and Marquess of Crewe; Crewe sale, London, Sotheby's, March 1903, lot 17; purchased through Quaritch by J. Pierpont Morgan, 30 June 1903.
Associated names: 

Butts, Thomas, 1759-1846, former owner.
Houghton, Richard Monckton Milnes, Baron, 1809-1885, former owner.
Crewe, Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes, Marquis of, 1858-1945, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.

Bibliography: 

Régis, Michel. La peinture comme crime ou la part maudite de la modernité. Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 2001, pp. 127 and 359, no. 80, repr.

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