The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 25, 2025

St. Matthew

1799
(British, 1757–1827)
England
tempera on canvas
Overall: 38.5 x 26.5 cm (15 3/16 x 10 7/16 in.)
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 2017.4
Location: 203B British Painting and Decorative Arts

Did You Know?

Like St. Matthew, William Blake reported having visions of angels throughout his life.

Description

The energy and awe with which the evangelist Saint Matthew responds to the angel presenting the divinely inspired text echoes William Blake’s attitude toward artistic inspiration. From childhood Blake experienced visions that are reflected in the otherworldliness of his work. While Blake was not embraced by the fine art establishment, a small group of patrons believed in his genius and commissioned works in which his unusual visions had free rein.
  • 1799-1845
    Thomas Butts [1757 - 1845], London, by descent to his son, Thomas Butts, Jr.
    1845-1862
    Thomas Butts, Jr. [died 1862], London
    by 1863-?
    William Michael Rossetti [1829-1919], London
    by 1876-1892
    William Bell Scott [1811-1890], consigned to sale at Sotheby's, London
    1892
    (Sotheby's, London, July 14, 1892, no. 238, sold to Quaritch)
    1892-1893
    (Quaritch, sold to E.H. van Ingen for Mrs. William Emerson)
    1893-1958
    Mrs. William Emerson, consigned to sale at Sotheby's, London
    1958
    (Sotheby's London, May 19, 1958, no.12, bought by Agnew for Lady Melchett)
    1958-1971
    Lady Melchett [1928-], sold at Christie's, London
    1971-?
    (Christie's London, November 9, 1971, no. 71, bought by Piccadilly Gallery)
    (Piccadilly Gallery, London, sold to Galleria Galatea)
    (Galleria Galatea, Turin, sold to private collector, Milan)
    by 1981-?
    private collector, Milan
    2016-17
    (Ben Elwes Fine Art, London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    2017-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 Purchased by Quaritch at Sotheby's sale for £27
    2 E.H. van Ingen purchased the painting for Mrs. William Emerson from Quaritch, were it was listed in catalogue 62 of 1893 for £36
    3 Agnew purchased the painting for Lady Melchett from the Sotheby's sale for £1,300
    4 The painting was purchase by the Piccadilly Gallery, London from Christie's for 5,000 gns
  • Butlin, Martin. The Paintings and Drawings of William Blake. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981. vol. 1, p. 323.
    Gilchrist, Alexander, Anne Gilchrist, W. J. Linton, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, Charles Edwin West, and Charles Henry Jeens. Life of William Blake, "Pictor Ignotus": With Selections from His Poems and Other Writings. London, Cambridge, United Kingdom: Macmillan and Co., 1863. Reproduced: p. 204, no. 28, 1880; Reproduced: p. 210, no. 31
    Philadelphia Museum of Art. William Blake, 1757-1827; A Descriptive Catalogue of an Exhibition of the Works of William Blake Selected from Collections in the United States. Philadelphia, PA: The Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1939. Reproduced: no. 155
    Blunt, Anthony. The Art of William Blake. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1959. Reproduced: p. 66
    Butlin, Martin. The Paintings and Drawings of William Blake. New Haven, CT: Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art by Yale University Press, 1981. Mentioned: vol. I, p. 323; Reproduced: vol II, plate 488
    Wieseman, Marjorie E and Korkow, Cory. “Acquisition Highlights: European Painting and Sculpture, 1500-1800.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine vol. 58. no. 2 (March/April 2018): 21-22. Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 22.
    Arendsee, M., and M. Steinman-Arendsee. "Take the CAN disability aesthetics tour, at the Cleveland Museum of art." CAN Journal (Winter 2019/20): 76-87. Reproduced & mentioned: p. 78
    Luckow, Almuth, and William Blake. Die Gottesbilder des William Blake: Kunst und Philosophie. Darmstadt : WBG Academic, 2021. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 220-221, Abb. 52
  • British Gallery Reinstallation (June 2020). The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer).
    The Works of William Blake. Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, United Kingdom (1876).
    William Blake. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA (1939).
    International Exhibition of Industry, Science and Art: Pictures of Works of Art. The Meadows, Edinburgh, Scotland (May 6 – Oct 30, 1886).
    Eighteenth Century English Paintings. Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA. (May 5 –May 19, 1930).
  • {{cite web|title=St. Matthew|url=false|author=William Blake|year=1799|access-date=25 March 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2017.4