------------------------------ Content-Type: text/plain blake-d Digest Volume 1996 : Issue 11 Today's Topics: Re: Jerusalem in Berlin MLA CFP Re: Blake's encounters with Reynolds : -Reply -Forwarded Re: Job Illustrations Re: Blake as a student at the RA Thelwall the Radical Re: Thelwall the Radical Re: Jerusalem in Berlin ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Feb 1996 21:48:06 MET From: "DOERRBECKER D.W." To: Joachim Flicker , blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Jerusalem in Berlin Message-Id: 19:FEB:1996 Lieber Joachim Flicker: Ich weiss nicht, wer an einem der Berliner kunsthistorischen Institute eine M.A.-Arbeit ueber Blake's *Jerusalem* betreut, und eine so ganz leichte Aufgabe haben Sie sich ja ohnedies nicht ausgesucht ... . Ich wollte--was moeglicherweise ganz und gar ueberfluessig ist--Sie lediglich darauf hinweisen, dass Werner Busch an der FU meines Wissens einen recht guten Kontakt zu David Bindman am University College London pflegt; David Bindman wiederum hat seinerzeit am Yale Center for British Art Exemplar E, die einzige kolorierte Fassung von *J*, gruendlich studiert, als er seine Blake-Ausstellung fuer New Haven und Toronto vorbereitete; und es mag sein, dass Ihnen in London, etwa bei der Arbeit im Print Room des British Museum oder im Studiensaal der Tate Gallery, eine ueber Herrn Busch zu vermittelnde Empfehlung an David Bindman von Nutzen sein koennte. Herzliche Gruesse, viel Erfolg und jede Menge Spass bei der Arbeit--wie auch beim Lesen von Blake Online Ihr DW Doerrbecker ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Feb 1996 14:56:08 -0600 From: jmichael@seraph1.sewanee.edu (J. Michael) To: blake@albion.com Subject: MLA CFP Message-Id: <9602192100.AA21198@uu6.psi.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" These panels' emphasis on material production of the book may be of interest to Blakeans. >Date: Mon, 19 Feb 1996 15:38:47 -0500 >Reply-To: 18th Century Interdisciplinary Discussion >Sender: 18th Century Interdisciplinary Discussion >From: Lisa Maruca >Subject: MLA CFP >To: Multiple recipients of list C18-L > >(The following is also being posted on SHARP-L) > >The Society of Critical Exchange is sponsoring two panels at the 1996 MLA >convention which may be of interest to C18-L subscribers. Unfortunately, >despite the fact that we sent in our information before the deadline, our >call for papers was inadvertently left out of the last newletter. Note that >this is not a special session; we are an allied organization and so do not >require MLA approval to present the panel. In order to ensure that this call >receives as wide a circulation as possible, we ask that you pass it on to >those whom you think might be interested, make a hard copy to post in your >department, or cross-post this to other lists. We appreciate your help in >getting the word out and look forward to hearing from anyone with questions, >abstracts or papers. > >Literary Properties I: Production >The relationship between the production of books as _material_ objects and >their reception, 1660-1830. Papers, two-page abstracts by March 1. > >Literary Properties II: Circulation >All stages/features of the distribution of books, 1660-1830. Papers, >two-page abstracts by March 1. > >Abstracts can be sent to Lisa Maruca, 1126 Hickory Hill Dr., Rochester Hills, >MI 48309 >or Martha Woodmansee, Department of English, Case Western Reserve University, >Cleveland, OH 44106. Email submissions can be sent to LMMaruca@aol.com > > ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Feb 1996 13:10:13 -0800 From: sarahclayton@earthlink.net (Sarah Clayton) To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Blake's encounters with Reynolds Message-Id: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" >Dear D.W.D. > >>P.S. Yes, I *was* thinking of Erdman's edition of *The Complete >>Poetry and Prose* (rev. impr., 1988); Blake records his encounters >>with Reynolds and Moser during his student days at the RA in the >>"Annotations to Reynolds" (I don't have a copy of the book at hand, >>therefore cannot refer you to the respective pages, but you'll easily >>locate them sub voce* "Marginalia" in Erdman's list of contents. > >I have once again poured over the annotations to the works of Sir Joshua >Reynolds. As far as I can surmise, and I will stake my eyes on it, there >is nothing to prove Blak'e having attended the academy within the >annotations themselves...There is only one moment where Blake tells the >story: "I was once looking over the Prints from Rafael & Michelangelo. in >the Library of the Royal Academy Moser came to me & said You should >not Study these Hard Stiff & Dry Unfinishd Works of Art, Stay a little & I >will shew you what you should Study. He then went & took down the Le Bruns >& Rubens's Galleries How I did secretly Rage. I also spoke my Mind >..." > >This anecdote, in itself does not offer enough information to confirm >Blake's having been enrolled at the academy. One does not need to be a >student in order to visit the library. Moser may have known him or may >have not known Blake from what is told. One may interpret Moser as >exemplifying the Academic Canon of the time by asserting that Rubens was >more valid than Michelangelo...but whether he is attempting to mentor a >student or merely taking a casual interest in a visitor to the gallery is >not made clear. > >Thus, I still assert, that one who studies the marginalia alone could not >possibly assume Blake to have been an actual student at the academy, >though the reader would certainly draw an image of Blake's contempt for >Reynolds and a demonization of the academy is evident. Whether one has to >have attended the academy to be able to demonize to such a degree is >negotiable. The criticism Blake offers is primarily limited to Reynold's >text itself and occasionally refers to paintings of Reynolds to further >his attacks. Any artist in England aware of current convention would have >some familiarity with Reynold's text and works. > >"I consider Reynold's Discourses to the Royal Academy as the Simulations >of the Hypocrite who Smiles particularly where he means to >Betray........Whether Reynolds. knew what he was doing. is nothing to me; >the Mischief is just the same,..." > >Here I get the impression that Reynolds is not a man that Blake has had >the chance to play chess with in person. He has not had the opportunity to >disect Reynolds on a personal basis...again the criticism is directed to >the explicit text and not to Reynold's behaviour in the classroom. > >so, D.W. Again, I explain that I was not aware that Blake had been >enrolled under Reynol;ds and that this biographical morsel has given me >amusement, since I can now re-read the marginalia, and much else in a >different light. Although I would not go so far as to accept that such a >reading should pre-figure the immediate constitutive elements of the work >and would tend to think of Blake's Academic Experience as being only >remotely contingent. > ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 20 Feb 1996 12:45:55 +0200 From: P Van Schaik To: blake@albion.com Subject: : -Reply -Forwarded Message-Id: Greetings from Pam van Schaik, Dept of English, University of South Africa. I've just joined the net and Blake online and would like briefly to introduce myself. I wrote an MA on the Contrary Images of Light and Darkness for Richard Fogle of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , followed by a doctorate on Blake's Vision of the Fall and am currently writing a book on Blake and the Kabbalah in which I explore corresponding ideas and symbols. Last year, I made a commemorative slide-tape lecture of The Book of Urizen, the text of which I could try to share with you if you like. Received: from uu6.psi.com by risc6.unisa.ac.za (AIX 3.2/UCB 5.64/4.03) id AA22322; Sat, 17 Feb 1996 00:40:36 +0200 Received: by uu6.psi.com (5.65b/4.0.071791-PSI/PSINet) via UUCP; id AA02592 for ; Fri, 16 Feb 96 17:29:21 -0500 Received: by albion.com (NX5.67e/Albion+2) id AA02451; Fri, 16 Feb 96 14:20:46 -0800 Message-Id: <9602162220.AA02451@albion.com> Content-Type: text/plain Mime-Version: 1.0 (NeXT Mail 3.3 v118.2) Received: by NeXT.Mailer (1.118.2) From: Seth T. Ross Date: Fri, 16 Feb 96 14:20:44 -0800 To: P Van Schaik Subject: Re: -Reply References: Pam: You accidently sent your note to blake-request@albion.com, where only I could see it. Please repost it to blake@albion.com. Yours, Seth --- A\ Seth Ross \ seth@albion.com\ AlbionBooks A A\ Independent Content Provider \ Books & Online Services A A\ MSN: Go "albion" \ http://www.albion.com/welcome/albion/sig/ Begin forwarded message: Date: Fri, 16 Feb 96 03:14:20 -0800 X-Envelope-From: somewhere!VSCHAP@alpha.unisa.ac.za Fri Feb 16 03:14:13 1996 X-Mailer: Novell GroupWise 4.1 Old-Date: Fri, 16 Feb 1996 12:24:30 +0200 From: P Van Schaik To: blake-request@albion.com Subject: Re: -Reply X-Diagnostic: Already on the subscriber list X-Diagnostic: 270 VSCHAP@alpha.unisa.ac.za 32752 VSCHAP@alpha.unisa.ac.za X-Envelope-To: blake-request Greetings -I'm Pam van Schaik of Dept English, Univ of South Africa where I've taught Blake for 25 years. Was at Uni of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for two years for which (under Richard Fogle) wrote an MA on contrary images of light and darkness in Blake and followed this with a PHD on Blake's vision of the fall of man for Unisa. Then a videotape, using 150 of Blake's coloured designs and, last year, a slide-tape lecture on FBU - which could try to share with you via internet if you would like. Am new on internet and glad for chance to contact other Blakeans. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 20 Feb 1996 12:32:09 MET From: "DOERRBECKER D.W." To: 9552274@EIGG.SMS.ED.AC.UK, blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Job Illustrations Message-Id: February 20th, 1996 Dear Cathy: You're looking for "a really good set of colour reproductions of Blake's Job"? Two publications come to mind; since both were issued as limited editions (of 400 and 387 copies respectively), you may have to consult them at a well-funded research library. In 1935 Laurence Binyon and Geoffrey Keynes edited the *Job* illustrations (i.e., the Butts and Linnell watercolour series, the drawings, and the engravings) for the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York (6 fasc. in a solander box); then, under the general editorship of David Bindman, the William Blake Trust published (1) *William Blake's <>: The Engravings and Related Materials [...]* and (2) *Colour Versions of William Blake's Book of Job Designs from the Circle of John Linnell: Facsimiles of the New Zealand and Collins Sets and the Fitzwilliam Plates* (London: Trianon Press, for the William Blake Trust, 1987). It also may be worthwhile to enquire at the Fogg Art Museum for a set of postcards with colour reproductions of their set (however, I've got no idea whether or not they do stock such reproductions). --DW Doerrbecker ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 20 Feb 1996 16:04:16 MET From: "DOERRBECKER D.W." To: sarahclayton@earthlink.net (Sarah Clayton), blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Blake as a student at the RA Message-Id: February 20th, 1996 "Looks as if I'm fooled again" --Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, c. 1977 Sarah Clayton's reply to the *postscriptum* I had appended to an E- mail message which was addressed to her personally (not to the list) clearly demonstrates her capacity for close reading. I find it difficult to contradict her sophisticated analysis of Blake's marginalia in his copy of Reynolds's *Works*, especially--and I take her word for that--since Blake nowhere describes himself *explicitly* as a former student of the Royal Academy Schools. And yet, what is one to make of Blake's introductory statement which begins Having spent the Vigour of my Youth & Genius under the Opression of Sr Joshua & his Gang of Cunning Hired Knaves [...]? Of course, it is *possible* to read this as a general reference to the state of the arts in Britain during the 1780s, and though we *know* better, I feel forced readily to admit that on account of one's awareness of the "Annotations to Reynolds" alone one *cannot* be absolutely sure that Blake studied at the Academy during Reynolds's presidency. Blake's reminiscence of his encounter with Moser is a similar case, if--that is--non-students such as engravers and engraver's apprentices actually were admitted to the RA's Library during the closing decades of the eighteenth century at all (which, unlike Sarah Clayton, I doubt, but do not know for sure; Hutchison or Bentley, I believe, do state that the RA's Library was open to members and students only). However grudgingly, then, I have to agree with Ms. Clayton's conclusion/assertion that "there is nothing to *prove* Blake's having attended the academy within the annotations themselves" (emphasis added, DWD), though I still maintain that for the reader of the Reynolds marginalia it is easily "possibl[e to] assume Blake to have been an actual student [...]". The evidence which allows for a more `particularized' understanding of the above citation (and much more in the "Annotations to Reynolds", the *Descriptive Catalogue*, the "Public Address", etc.) comes from the list of students I have mentioned in my first response to Sarah Clayton (ed. Sidney C. Hutchison) and from the Minutes of the [RA's] Council for Friday, October 9th, 1779: The Keeper [of the Academy] presented several Drawings done from Casts in the Royal Academy. The following were admitted students Viz----Tho:s Goss----Peter Holland---- [...]----Will:m Blake----J. Cappe---- Order'd That Admission Tickets be given to them J Reynolds Pres. F M. Newton, Sec [quoted from Bentley's *Records*, 1969: 15-16] By-the-by, Bentley added the following to this transcript from the Minutes: "As a token of admission, Blake was probably given an ivory ticket, which entitled him to draw in the galleries of the Royal Academy and to attend lectures [such as Reynolds's series of annual "Discourses"] and exhibitions for six years." Does that sound familiar to readers of Ackroyd's new biography? Back to Sarah Clayton's latest contribution to the list--and *agreed*: while Marcel Duchamp may have been the "*man* [...] to play chess with in person [and in public]" (emphasis added, DWD), especially for nude models (female models, of course!), Reynolds wasn't. And he wasn't even meant to act, *ex officio*, as one of the Academy's tutors for its students either. The office of supervisor of the students' classes was not that of the Academy's presidents, but of the keeper and some of the members who were elected for that office by their fellow- academicians. Containing many more "biographical morsels" which Sarah Clayton may find amusing (and others may even think illuminating), and providing us (as Mary Lynn Johnson pointed out before) with the essential documentary evidence for our understanding of Blake's biography in its historical context by allowing the poet-artist's contemporaries to speak for themselves, G.E. Bentley, Jr.'s *Blake Records* (Oxford, Oxon.: Clarendon P, 1969) needs to be reprinted (or `hypertexted'?) soon. --DW Doerrbecker ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Feb 1996 13:14:09 -0600 (CST) From: William Neal Franklin To: blake online Subject: Thelwall the Radical Message-Id: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Erdman has several enigmatic references to John Thelwall, known in London during the 1790's for his radical publications. The implication seems to be that Blake knew of his work and to some extent was sympathetic to his cause. What of this guy? Is he minor, really minor, or really really minor? Has anyone worked with him? ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Feb 1996 08:00:40 +1100 From: jon.mee@anu.edu.au To: blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Thelwall the Radical Message-Id: <199602232100.IAA24411@anugpo.anu.edu.au> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" You should look at Greg Claeys work. From the point of view of canonical literary study he may be minor, but he represents an important figure in the cultural history of the period with contacts in everything from poetry to the elocution movement. I'm not sure thinking about whether people are minor is a useful category. Where would that have left Blake a hundred years ago? ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Feb 1996 03:45:17 +0100 (MET) From: Joachim Flicker To: "DOERRBECKER D.W." , blake@albion.com Subject: Re: Jerusalem in Berlin Message-Id: Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Lieber Detlef Doerrbecker ! Herzlichen Dank fuer Ihre freundliche Antwort auf meine Vorstellung in der Blake-Liste. Besonders freue ich mich ueber die Gelegenheit in Deutsch schreiben zu koennen, da mir in Englisch zu schreiben ein bisschen die Gelaeufigkeit fehlt. Was meine Magister-Arbeit angeht, haben Sie mit Recht zwei Probleme angeschnitten: 1. Ich schreibe meine Arbeit an der TU-Berlin fuer Robert Suckale, der Spezialist fuer gotische Architektur und fruehe niederlaendische Malerei ist und mit Blake seit 20 Jahren nichts zu tun hatte. Mit anderen Worten: Ich stehe bei der Abfassung der Arbeit mehr oder weniger allein da, was manchmal jedoch ein angenehmes Gefuehl der Freiheit gibt. Schlecht ist dabei nur, dass sich durch diesen Zustand das Tempo meiner Arbeit verlangsamt. Daher bin ich Ihnen fuer Ihren Hinweis auf Herrn Busch an der FU, von dem ich bisher nichts wusste, sehr dankbar. Vielleicht laesst sich dort ein fruchtbarer Kontakt herstellen. 2. Dass ich mir "Jerusalem", diesen gewaltigen Fluss ohne Ufer, als Thema ausgesucht habe, liegt daran, dass der Text als einziger der prophetischen Buecher im farbigen Faksimile zu haben war, als ich anfing mich fuer Blake mehr als oberflaechlich zu interessieren. Ich fand das Buch in einer Buchhandlung, verliebte mich darin, und haeng nun dran, mit nach wie vor grossem Vergnuegen. Besonders interressant bei der Beschaeftigung mit "Jerusalem" finde ich, dass mit jeder weiteren Hintergrundlektuere sich die Gesamterscheinung des Werkes grundlegend veraendert. Sei es die Bibel, Milton, Swedenborg oder Boehme. Jedesmal oeffnet sich eine weitere Perspektive, die das Gesamtbild deutlicher werden laesst und gleichzeitig die Unabhaengigkeit des Werkes von den anderen, auf die es anspielt, deutlich macht, so dass es einem fast wie ein lebendiges Kunstwerk aus einer Geschichte von Borges vorkommen kann. Die Lektuere von Jakob Boehme erscheint mir als besonders hilfreich in Bezug auf Blakes Vorstellung von Gegensaetzlichkeit und seine Idee der Imagination, die ich als Schluesselfigur fuer meine Arbeit an den Anfang stellen moechte und aus der ich Blakes Idee seiner kuenstlerischen Technik und seine Aesthetik hoffe ableiten zu koennen. Wenn es mir gelingt, dies als solide Grundlage aufzubauen, werde ich von da aus versuchen, die einzelnen Bildtafeln im Zusammenhang des ganzen Werkes aufzuschluesseln. Dies ist so die grobe Richtung und ich denke, es wird auf jeden Fall abenteuerlich. Ich bin selbst gespannt, wo mich diese Sache noch hinfuehrt. Ich freue mich, wenn sich daraus eine Menge Gelegenheiten zur Diskussion mit Ihnen und den anderen auf der Liste ergeben. Nochmals vielen Dank fuer Ihren Brief und Alles Gute, Ihr Joachim Flicker. -------------------------------- End of blake-d Digest V1996 Issue #11 *************************************