Rerun of Blake’s art exhibition

WILLIAM BLAKE’S first solo art exhibition is to be re-staged, reuniting nine of the surviving works 200 years after they went on show.

The original and only one-man exhibition in May 1809 was Blake’s most significant attempt to create a public reputation for himself as a painter, according to Tate Britain, which is staging the event.

Blake (1757-1827) was a poet, printmaker and artist whose work was overlooked by many.

Held in Blake’s brother’s shop on Golden Square, Soho, his original display comprised 16 works.

However, the show was not a success — a single, negative review was published and the event was poorly attended, to the artist’s profound dismay.

The bad feedback proved to be a turning-point in Blake’s life, leading him to withdraw even more from the public realm and become even more embittered about the state of the British art world, Tate Britain said.

The display will highlight Blake’s distinctive use of “fresco painting”.

A new edition of Blake’s Descriptive Catalogue (1809) will be published, which will incorporate full-colour illustrations of the works surviving from the original exhibition now to be seen alongside Blake’s text.

The catalogue is described by Tate Britain as “one of the most sustained and lucid commentaries on his aspirations as an artist, his symbolism, and on art and the art world”.

It opens on April 20 and will run until October 4.