William Blake

The Circle of the Lustful: Francesca da Rimini (‘The Whirlwind of Lovers’)

1826–7, reprinted 1968

Image released under Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 Unported)

License this image

In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment

Artist: William Blake 1757–1827
Part of: Illustrations to Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’
Medium: Line-engraving on paper
Dimensions: Image: 243 × 335 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented by Lessing J. Rosenwald 1975
Reference: T01950

Catalogue entry

T01950 Illustrations to Dante's ‘Divine Comedy’: Restrikes 1826–7/1968 [A00005-A00011; N03351-N03370; T01950-T01956; complete]

T 01950–6 /-
Seven line-engravings on Japanese paper 383×459 (15 7/8×18 1/16)
Inscribed in pencil below each print, ‘A restrike from the copper plate in my collection. August 1968 Lessing J. Rosenwald’ b.r. within platemark, and 2/25 hoehn imp 68' b.r. outside platemark.
Presented by Lessing J. Rosenwald 1975
PROVENANCE Commissioned by Lessing J. Rosenwald 1968
LITERATURE As for A00005-A00011; Bentley Blake Books 1977, p.545, no.448D

T01950-T01956 are restrikes made in 1968 from Blake's original plates in the Rosenwald collection, now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington. They were printed by Harry Hoehn for Lessing J. Rosenwald at the suggestion of Ruthven Todd. The edition was of twenty-five sets. In 1955 Mr Rosenwald had had another, less successful set of restrikes pulled, also in an edition of twenty-five.

T01950 The Circle of the Lustful; Francesca da Rimini (‘The Whirlwind of Lovers’)

Engraving, 243×335 (9 9/16×13 7/16); platemark 276×353 (10 1/16×13 3/8)

Inscribed ‘The Whirlwind of Lovers from Dantes Inferno Canto V’ in mirrorwriting, b.r.; see also above

Inferno V, 25–45, 127–142.

Published in:
Martin Butlin, William Blake 1757-1827, Tate Gallery Collections, V, London 1990