The Ghost of a Flea

Painted in 1819, this miniature shows a flea of monstrous proportions striding from right to left between heavy, richly patterned curtains. Its muscular, naked body blends human, vampiric and reptilian traits: the thick neck recalls a bull's, while the disproportionately small head has fixed glaring eyes, open jaws and a slithering tongue. The creature feeds from a bowl of blood and holds an acorn in one hand and a thorn in the other, objects drawn from fairy iconography. The work belongs to a series of 'Visionary Heads' that the watercolourist and astrologer John Varley commissioned from Blake around 1819 to 1820. Varley believed in spirits but could never see them, and Blake, who claimed to have visions daily, would sketch the likenesses of historical or mythological figures that he said appeared during evening sessions at Varley's house. The image of the flea is said to have come to him during one of these gatherings. Varley recalled that Blake broke off his first sketch to draw the insect's mouth, which the spirit had opened, and only resumed once it was closed. The account is hard to verify and should be read as a personal testimony. Despite its tiny size, the panel sets the bulk of the creature against its reduction to an insect. Blake worked in his distinctive tempera on panel with gold: he laid a thin foil of 'white' gold, made from a gold and silver alloy, and used powdered gold mixed with a binder for the finest details, then overlaid parts of the surface with a dark brown paint. The panel is now cracked and dulled in places, partly because of the technique itself. Possible sources have been proposed, such as Robert Hooke's microscopic drawings or Henry Fuseli's demonic figures, but none fully accounts for the work, whose interest lies in packing the gothic and grotesque into a very small surface.

Painter

William Blake

Date

1819

Medium

gold, tempera, panel

Dimensions

16 × 21 cm

Museum

National Gallery, London

Share:FacebookWhatsApp