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A
Book of Rare Beauty
Click
on images to view a gallery
William
Blake was the first to integrate image and text
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Each September, when Martin Antonetti
opens his art history course The Artists Book in the 20th
Century, he begins with one historic book: a 1797 edition
of Edward Young’s Night Thoughts, elaborately
illustrated by William Blake.
That book -- an arresting folio
lavished with ethereal images, vibrant colors and timeless
poetry -- captures the essence of the genre of artists’
books: a seamless combination of visual and literary content,
an artistic integration of image and text. It is among the
most valuable items in the Mortimer Rare Book Room’s
eminent collection.
“I think of Blake as the
progenitor of artists’ books,” says Antonetti,
a lecturer in art and curator of rare books, who also teaches
the course The Art & History of the Book. “This
book is one of his truly great productions.”
The book was printed with metal
type for the poetry and full-page etchings for the illustrations.
On many of the pages, the text is nearly engulfed by the pictorial
field, weaving the images into the experience of reading the
poems. This technique of creating an image-text, as it is
now called, prefigured by 100 years the production of modern
artists’ books.
“Night Thoughts
was certainly revolutionary in its design,” Antonetti
says, “so different from the staid neo-classical mise-en-page
that was typical of the era; and it was the perfect vehicle
for Blake’s violent emotions and muscular spirituality.”
After more
than 200 years, Blake's colors in Night Thoughts remain
clear and vibrant |
Blake’s publisher, R. Edwards,
had intended for the edition to be issued uncolored, but in
his spare time Blake and his wife Katherine hand-colored a
few copies for friends. Experts who have examined the Mortimer
Rare Book Room copy consider it to be one of those colored
by Blake himself.
Although Blake, who lived from
1757 to 1827, made his living primarily as an engraver, working
for publishers of others’ works, his writings, paintings
and illustrated books have elevated his historic prominence
as an artist. His own limited-edition books of poetry -- Songs
of Innocence, Songs of Experience, Milton: A Poem, and
Jerusalem -- are today considered among the treasures
of visionary literature.
Young’s Night Thoughts,
first published in 1745, was one of the most popular English
poems of the 18th century. In it, the poet ponders life’s
difficult questions of love and loss during nine brooding
nights after his wife’s death.
The 1797 edition now at Smith
was rebound early in the 20th century, but was sewn too tightly
for the good of the pages, which over time had broken along
the inner gutter, explains Antonetti. Something needed to
be done quickly and correctly to preserve the valued and heavily
used book.
After much deliberation and planning,
and with the financial assistance of Janice Oresman ’55,
a longtime supporter of the Mortimer Rare Book Room, the Smith
College Museum of Art, and the college’s Print Workshops,
the book received the needed repairs at the hands of Daniel
Gehnrich, a renowned bookbinder and paper conservator in Paxton,
Massachusetts.
The repair was a necessary measure,
notes Antonetti, to save a work of art that is valued for
its educational use, its historic rarity, and the visual appeal
of its illustrations.
“We often show this book
to visitors and in class presentations. It’s one of
the single most amazing books in the collection,” attests
Antonetti, “and admired by everyone who sees it, from
kids to connoisseurs.”
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