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begin page 154 | ↑ back to topBLAKE PURCHASE
The Tate Gallery has recently purchased Blake’s late tempera painting on a panel of “Winter.” This is one of the pair of pictures illustrating William Cowper’s poem The Task that were painted for Cowper’s cousin, the Rev. John Johnson, to be set each side of his fireplace. A third painting, a landscape of “Olney Bridge,” ran across the top, but has been destroyed. These pictures were almost certainly painted in the early 1820s, following the rebuilding of Johnson’s rectory at Yaxham, Norfolk, in 1820-21, and remained in the possession of Johnson’s descendants until their recent sale, having been on loan to the Tate Gallery for the last few years. When sold at Sotheby’s on 18 July 1979, “Winter” fetched £30,000 while the companion “Evening” fetched £21,000. Both were bought by Thos. Agnew & Sons, Ltd., the first for the Tate Gallery, the second for a private American collector.
