William Blake at Tate Britain, London, England
At Tate Britain, I stumbled upon a whole room devoted to William Blake prints, paintings, books and drawings, all of which are part of their permanent collection. He is one of my favourite artists and poets, so finding this display was a real treat for me. I saw a lot of William Blake’s work in a past exhibition (2001), so this acted as a pleasant reminder.

I have recently been experimenting with egg tempera and discovered that Blake had also used this medium. Unfortunately his paintings seemed to have darkened somewhat and seemed in poor condition, which makes me question how stable egg tempera actually is. One of his paintings is Ghost of a Flea, which seemed a lot darker in reality (almost black) than the more flattering reproductions of it. His prints finished with watercolours seemed to have faired better and are much more vibrant in colour. One of my favourites is his portrait of Newton and I was glad to see it for real in all its glory.