Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0008151, Sat, 19 Jul 2003 10:29:54 -0700

Subject
Fw: Blake's "Old Parr" in Nabokov's ADA
Date
Body

----- Original Message -----
From: "Carolyn Kunin" <chaiselongue@earthlink.net>
>
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> Blake's "Old Parr When Young" (a drawing from 1820) can be seen at
> http://www.huntington.org/ArtDiv/Blake/BlakeExhibition.html
>
> It's at the bottom of the page. I guess he's also here in Pasadena!
>

FINAL TESTAMENT



Age and ill-health would have provided lesser men with an excuse for
inaction, but Blake continued to produce works of astonishing power and
insight in his last years. In addition to his Job and Dante engravings,
Blake began several major projects, including his only wood engravings (a
series of illustrations to a translation of one of Virgil's pastoral poems)
and an illustrated manuscript of the Book of Genesis. Perhaps the powerful
body of Old Parr When Young, one of Blake's "Visionary Portraits" in the
exhibition, can be taken as a symbol for the youthful vigor of Blake's
artistic spirit to the end of his days.

The exhibition concludes with a full-color computer display of all
Blake's original works in the Huntington collection.





Robert N. Essick

Old Parr When Young.
Pencil drawing, 1820.
> Carolyn