Provenance
Painted for Thomas Butts [1757-1845];[1] by descent to Thomas Butts, Jr. (sale, Messrs. Foster, London, 29 June 1853, no. 87), bought by J.C. Strange, Highgate. (B.F. Stevens and Brown), London. Graham Robertson [1866-1948]; (his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 22 July 1949, No. 102), bought by the William Blake Trust, whose Trustees sold it 1951 to Lessing J. Rosenwald, Philadelphia; gift to NGA, 1954.
[1] This is one of over 135 illustrations to the Bible painted for Thomas Butts, Blake's most important patron.
Accession Number
1954.13.1
Medium
tempera on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 30.5 x 48.2 cm (12 x 19 in.) | framed: 38.1 x 55.3 x 3.8 cm (15 x 21 3/4 x 1 1/2 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Rosenwald Collection
Tags
Painting Neoclassical & Romantic (1751–1850) Tempera Canvas British
Background & Context
Background Story
The Last Supper from 1799 is Blake's version of the most depicted subject in Western art, rendered in the tempera on canvas medium that Blake used for his large-scale biblical paintings. Blake's treatment is characteristically unconventional: the Last Supper is not a narrative of the institution of the Eucharist but a visionary event in which Christ and the apostles exist in a spiritual dimension that transcends physical space. The composition departs from the traditional arrangement of the apostles around a table, instead placing them in a configuration that reflects Blake's personal theology rather than the iconographic tradition.
Cultural Impact
Blake's Last Supper is one of the most unconventional treatments of the subject in Western art because it rejects the narrative tradition in favor of a visionary interpretation that reflects Blake's personal theology. Where traditional Last Supper paintings show the apostles reacting to Christ's announcement of betrayal, Blake shows them participating in a spiritual event that transcends the physical circumstances of the meal. The 1799 date places this in Blake's most productive period as a painter, when he was working on a series of large-scale biblical subjects.
Why It Matters
The Last Supper is Blake's visionary interpretation of the most traditional subject in Western art: the apostles participating in a spiritual event that transcends the physical meal, arranged in a configuration that reflects Blake's personal theology rather than iconographic tradition. The tempera on canvas medium gives the spiritual event a luminous, otherworldly quality.
