Album of Original Pencil Drawings

Additional information

c1823-1832, Oblong quarto. Eighteen mounted drawings in a contemporary half red roan album, 1 leaf (with 5 heads) with some burn marks to edges, with the original stationer's label of H. Ziegler and Co. Some additional pages are blank and others show traces of drawings being removed. Neatly re-backed retaining the original spine, new silk ties, 1889 book label to fpd, ink & pencil note Sketches by John Varley, collated by E Sterry to ffep, Hartland Library presentation label from AG Hartland to verso ffep. Of most interest are four sheets of drawings of portrait heads, which rather than preparatory sketches for finished pictures are more likely to be demonstrations of Varley's interest in visionary images and astrological influences on appearance. In 1818 William Linnell introduced Varley to William Blake and they remained firm friends until Blake's death. Linnell records that it was Varley who excited Blake to see or fancy portraits of historical personages. During their evening sessions at Varley's house in Great Titchfield Street in 1819-25 Blake drew the figures he saw in his visions, some of them in one of Varley's sketchbooks which he had ready for the purpose. They included biblical and historical figures, such as Socrates, Boadicea, Mahomet, Canute.. as well as more humerous or abstract concepts like the head of the ghost of a flea... (Kauffmann p42). One sheet of drawings in this album is of roman and classical heads, and although certainly by Varley not Blake, it does suggest the influence of their creative sessions. Other drawings are of Scarlet Oak [leaf] on the Lawn at Leyton, which dates from c1823 when Varley visited Essex, and exhibited a View of Leyton at the Old Watercolour Society. Watermarks on the drawings range from 1815 to 1832.