{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O156978"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O156978/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PG6513/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PG6513/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2025PG6513","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PG6516","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006BE8311","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KT6521","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2023NR0149","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O156978/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O156978","accessionNumber":"P.29-1953","objectType":"Watercolour","titles":[{"title":"The Fall of Man","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"","physicalDescription":"Watercolour drawing, 'The Fall of Man'.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Blake, William","id":"A3132"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"watercolour (paint)","id":"AAT15045"}],"techniques":[{"text":"watercolour painting (technique)","id":"THES250889"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Pen and watercolour on thin card","categories":[{"text":"Watercolours","id":"THES277714"},{"text":"Christianity","id":"THES48978"},{"text":"Religion","id":"THES48900"}],"styles":[{"text":"English","id":"AAT111178"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2025PG6513","2025PG6516","2006BE8311","2018KT6521","2023NR0149"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLH","id":"THES49654"},"free":"","case":"WD","shelf":"61","box":"A"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"watercolour (painting)","id":"AAT78925"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"No","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1807","earliest":"1807-01-01","latest":"1807-12-31"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"51.8","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"39.3","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"1807 W Blake inv","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Signed and dated"},{"content":"The Father indignant at the Fall - the Saviour, while the Evil Angels are driven, gently conducts our first parents out of Eden through a Guard of weeping Angels - Satan now awakes Sin, Death, & Hell, to celebrate with him the birth of War & Misery: while the Lion seizes the Bull, the Tiger the Horse, the Vulture and the Eagle contend for the Lamb.","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":""}],"objectHistory":"Provenance: Thomas Butts; Thomas Butts jun., sold Foster's 29 June 1853 (no. 89); Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, Bt.; Gen, Archibald Stirling; Lt.-Col. William Stirling; sold 1953 to the Victoria and Albert Museum\r\n\r\nIt was no. 27 at the Blake Exhibition held in 1947 at the René Drouin Gallery, Paris and elsewhere.\n\nHistorical significance: Blake worked on various versions of the Last Judgement from 1806 until the end of his life. David Bindman remarks on how, in <i>The Fall of Man</i>, Blake shows a synoptic view of the Fall, with Christ (rather than the Archangel Michael) leading Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden (Bindman, p. 165). God the Father is enthroned in the sphere of Heaven, and at the bottom Hell gapes open, and Sin and Death emerge.\r\n\r\nThe Last Judgement is the subject of a companion watercolour of 1806 (<i>A Vision of the Last Judgement</i>, 1806, Pollock House, Glasgow). In this work Adam and Eve appear in contrition before the throne, while the trump-blowing Angels descend to confront the Beast consumed in flames.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Watercolour by William Blake entitled 'The Fall of Man'. Great Britain, 1807.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"David Bindman, <i>Blake as an Artist</i> (Oxford: Phaidon, 1977), pp. 165-66. \r\n\r\nMartin Butlin, <i>The Paintings and Drawings of William Blake</i> (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1981), pp. 466-67, no. 641"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Michael Phillips and Catherine de Bourgoing, <u>William Blake. le Génie visionnaire du romantisme anglias</u> Paris: Paris-Musées, 2009. ISBN: 978-2-7596-0077-9."},{"reference":{"text":"Evans, Mark et al. <i>Vikutoria & Arubāto Bijutsukan-zō : eikoku romanshugi kaigaten = The Romantic tradition in British painting, 1800-1950 : masterpieces from the Victoria and Albert Museum</i>. Japan : Brain Trust, 2002","id":"AUTH332409"},"details":"","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<u>Victoria and Albert Museum Department of Prints and Drawings and Department of Paintings Accessions 1953 </u> London: HMSO, 1963"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Loukes, Andrew ed. <i>William Blake in Sussex: Visions of Albion</i> National Trust in association with Paul Hoberton Publishing, 2018. ISBN: 978-1-911300-29-8."},{"reference":{"text":"Philipps, Michael (ed.), <i>William Blake, 1757-1827 : le Génie Visionnaire du Romantisme Anglais</i>, Paris : Paris Musées, 2009","id":"AUTH354704"},"details":"no. 105","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"p. 223","free":"Alice Insley, David Blayney Brown, Ágnes Péter, László F. Földényi, Ferenc Gosztonyi, Csilla Regős, ‘The Marriage of Heaven and Hell: William Blake (1757-1827) and his Contemporaries’, Museum of Fine Art, Budapest, 2026. ISBN: 978-6156982049"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["P.29-1953"],"accessionNumberNum":"29","accessionNumberPrefix":"P","accessionYear":1953,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-04-27","recordCreationDate":"2008-06-19","availableToBook":false}}