Satan Exulting over Eve by William Blake

Acquisition of one of a series of 12 large colour prints conceived by Blake in 1795. Colour print, pen and ink and watercolour on paper mounted on canvas, 432 x 534mm, on paper, print. The paper on which this work was printed was once stuck to a tightly-stretched canvas. The surface had been varnished, to make it look more like an oil painting. Satan's face and body had been 'strengthened' with oil paint, a medium Blake never used. These additions were removed during conservation to reveal a lightly-printed but more colourful image. Blake's patron, Thomas Butts, owned this work and the other large colour prints by Blake. not one of the original frames used by Butts has survived. This frame was designed and made in 1999-2000. The style is based on frames of about 1800.To be displayed at the Tate Gallery.