The Fall of Man, William Blake, 1807
William Blake, portraitWilliam BlakeBritish, 1757–1827

The Fall of Man

1807 · Watercolour · 51.8 × 39.3 cm

Can I see it?

Not on view at present

Where is “The Fall of Man” now? Collection: Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Not on view at present. Checked September 25, 2026.

Victoria and Albert Museum

London, United Kingdom

It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.

Checked
In this state since
Source
The museum

Details

Accession number
P.29-1953

In the catalog

Sources

In the life of William Blake

The whole life
  1. 1780–1808

    Exhibits six times at the Royal Academy

    Despite his antagonism towards Reynolds, Blake submitted works to the Royal Academy on six occasions between 1780 and 1808.

  2. October 1803 – 1820 · Residence

    South Molton Street

  3. c. 1808

    Polemical annotations to Reynolds's “Discourses”

    Around 1808 Blake gave vigorous expression to his views on art in an extensive series of polemical annotations to Sir Joshua Reynolds's “Discourses”, denouncing the Royal Academy as a fraud and proclaiming that to generalise is to be an idiot.

  4. 1809

    An exhibition in his brother's shop: nothing sold

    Blake set up an independent exhibition in his brother's haberdashery shop at 27 Broad Street in Soho to market his version of “The Canterbury Pilgrims” along with other works. It was very poorly attended, sold none of the temperas or watercolours, and its only review, in The Examiner, was hostile.

  5. 1809

    The “Descriptive Catalogue”: an analysis of Chaucer

    For the exhibition Blake wrote his “Descriptive Catalogue” (1809), which contains what Anthony Blunt called a “brilliant analysis” of Chaucer and is regularly anthologised as a classic of Chaucer criticism; it also contains detailed explanations of his other paintings.

All works

On view at Victoria and Albert Museum

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