Newton (Blake)

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Newton (1795-1805) 460 x 600 mm. Collection Tate Britain

Newton is a monotype by the English poet, painter and printmaker William Blake first completed in 1795,^[1] but reworked and reprinted in 1805.^[2] It is one of the 12 "Large Colour Prints" or "Large Colour Printed Drawings" created between 1795 and 1805, which also include his series of images on the biblical ruler Nebuchadnezzar.

Isaac Newton is shown sitting naked and crouched on a rocky outcropping covered with algae, apparently at the bottom of the sea. His attention is focused upon diagrams he draws with a compass upon a scroll that appears to unravel from his mouth.^[3] The compass is a smaller version of that held by Urizen in Blake's The Ancient of Days.

Blake's opposition to the enlightenment was deeply rooted. He wrote in his annotations to the Laocoon "Art is the Tree of Life. Science is the Tree of Death."^[4] Newton's theory of optics was especially offensive to Blake, who made a clear distinction between the vision of the "vegetative eye" and spiritual vision. The deistic view of God as a distant creator who played no role in daily affairs was anathema to Blake, who regularly experienced spiritual visions. He opposes his "four-fold vision" to the "single vision" of Newton, whose "natural religion" of scientific materialism he characterized as sterile.

Newton was incorporated into Blake's infernal trinity along with the philosophers Francis Bacon and John Locke.^[5]

The 1995 Paolozzi statue currently at the piazza of the British Library.

Blake's print would later serve as the basis for Eduardo Paolozzi's 1995 bronze sculpture Newton, after William Blake, which resides in the piazza of the British Library.

References

↑ Townsend, 32
↑ The website of The Tate Britain, retrieved 10 September 2009. The paper it is printed on is watermarked 1804
↑ Kaiser, Christopher B. Creational Theology and the History of Physical Science. 1997, page 328.
↑ Burwick, Frederick (1986) The Damnation of Newton: Goethe's Color Theory and Romantic Perception. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 0-89925-207-9 Page 8
↑ Damon, S. Foster (1988). A Blake dictionary: the ideas and symbols of William Blake. Hanover, NH: Published for Brown University Press by University Press of New England. p. 243. ISBN 0-87451-436-3.

Ault, Donald (1974) Visionary Physics: Blake's Response to Newton Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-03225-6
Nicholson, Majorie Hope (1963) Newton demands the muse: Newtons̓ Opticks and the eighteenth century poets Archon Books
Townsend, Joyce (ed.). William Blake: The Painter at Work. London: Tate Publishing, 2003. ISBN 1-85437-468-0

William Blake

Literary works

Early writings

Songs of Innocence
and of Experience

Songs of Innocence	Introduction The Shepherd The Ecchoing Green The Lamb The Little Black Boy The Blossom The Chimney Sweeper The Little Boy Lost The Little Boy Found Laughing Song A Cradle Song The Divine Image Holy Thursday Night Spring Nurse's Song Infant Joy A Dream On Another's Sorrow

Songs of Experience	Introduction Earth's Answer The Clod and the Pebble Holy Thursday The Little Girl Lost The Little Girl Found The Chimney Sweeper Nurse's Song The Sick Rose The Fly The Angel The Tyger My Pretty Rose Tree Ah! Sun-flower The Lily The Garden of Love The Little Vagabond London The Human Abstract Infant Sorrow A Poison Tree A Little Boy lost A Little Girl Lost To Tirzah The School Boy The Voice of the Ancient Bard "A Divine Image" (found only in Copy BB)

Prophetic
Books

The continental prophecies	America a Prophecy Europe a Prophecy The Song of Los

Other	Tiriel The Book of Thel The Marriage of Heaven and Hell The French Revolution Visions of the Daughters of Albion The Book of Urizen The Book of Ahania The Book of Los The Four Zoas Milton Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion

The Pickering
Manuscript

Auguries of Innocence
The Mental Traveller
The Crystal Cabinet
Mary
The Smile
The Golden Net
The Land of Dreams
The Grey Monk
Long John Brown and Little Mary Bell
William Bond

The Rossetti
Manuscript

Never seek to tell thy love

Mythology

Ahania Albion Bromion Enion Enitharmon Fuzon Grodna Har Leutha Los Luvah Orc Palamabron Spectre Tharmas Thiriel Tiriel Urizen Urthona Utha Vala

Art

Paintings and prints	Relief etching Engravings for Original Stories from Real Life The Ancient of Days The Night of Enitharmon's Joy Newton Nebuchadnezzar Illustrations for Night-Thoughts Illustrations of The Grave The Four and Twenty Elders Casting their Crowns before the Divine Throne Illustrations of Paradise Lost A Vision of the Last Judgment Descriptive Catalogue The Great Red Dragon Paintings Pity The Ghost of a Flea Agony in the Garden Illustrations of On the Morning of Christ's Nativity The Wood of the Self-Murderers: The Harpies and the Suicides Illustrations of the Book of Job Illustrations of The Divine Comedy

Sketches	Visionary Heads

The Ancients	Edward Calvert John Linnell Samuel Palmer George Richmond Arthur Tatham Frederick Tatham

Criticism and scholarship

Scholars and critics	Peter Ackroyd Donald Ault Harold Bloom Nancy Bogen Jacob Bronowski S. Foster Damon David V. Erdman Northrop Frye Alexander Gilchrist Geoffrey Keynes Alicia Ostriker Kathleen Raine E. P. Thompson W. B. Yeats

Scholarly works	Life of William Blake Fearful Symmetry A Blake Dictionary: The Ideas and Symbols of William Blake Blake: Prophet Against Empire Witness Against the Beast

Archives and Collections	William Blake Archive

Wikimedia

Commons Wikibooks Wikiquote Wikisource Wiktionary

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Newton (Blake)

References

Further reading