William Blake: Burning Bright, 26 August–30 November 2025, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Abstract

The recent exhibition at the newly refurbished Yale Center for British Art offered an excellent introduction to the depth and range of Blake’s career as an artist. As the items on display were nearly all from the Paul Mellon Collection (the heart of the YCBA), the show was indirectly a tribute to Mellon as a devotee and collector of Blake’s art. Plates from Blake’s own illuminated books, such as Songs of Innocence and of Experience, The Book of Urizen, America, Visions of the Daughters of Albion, and Jerusalem, were presented alongside his illustrations of the books of others, in particular his luminous watercolors accompanying the poems of Thomas Gray. The selections also showcased Blake’s skill in various media: pencil drawing, watercolor, conventional white- and black-line engraving, relief etching, and color printing, as well as tempera. Beyond what the exhibition showed us about Blake, it also exemplified a museum committed to its public mission of education and, as Blake would put it, “rouz[ing] the faculties to act” (letter to Dr. Trusler, E 702).