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ED; E706| 10
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[To] Mr [George] Cumberland, Bishopsgate,
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Windsor Great Park
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13 Hercules Buildings, Lambeth, 2 July 1800
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Dear Cumberland
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I have to congratulate you on your plan for a National
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Gallery being put into Execution. All your wishes shall in due
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time be fulfilled the immense flood of Grecian light & glory
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which is coming on Europe will more than realize our warmest
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wishes. Your honours will be unbounded when your plan shall be
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carried into Execution as it must be if England continues a
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Nation. I hear that it is now in the hands of Ministers That the
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King shews it great Countenance & Encouragement, that it will
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soon be up before Parliament & that it must be extended
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& enlarged to take in Originals both of Painting & Sculpture by
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considering Every valuable original that is brought into England
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or can be purchasd Abroad as its objects of Acquisition. Such is
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the Plan as I am told & such must be the plan if England wishes
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to continue at all worth notice as you have yourself observd only
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now we must possess Originals as well as France or be Nothing
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Excuse I intreat you my not returning Thanks at the proper
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moment for your kind present. No perswasion could make my
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stupid bead believe that it was proper for me to trouble you with
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a letter of meer Compliment & Expression of thanks. I begin to
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Emerge from a Deep pit of Melancholy, Melancholy without any real
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reason for it, a Disease which God keep you from & all good men.
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Our artists of all ranks praise your outlines & wish for more.
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Flaxman is very warm in your commendation & more and more of A
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Grecian. Mr Hayley has lately mentiond your Work on outline
in
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Notes to [Epistles on Sculpture] an Essay on Sculpture
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in Six Epistles to John Flaxman, I have been too little among
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friends which I fear they will not Excuse & I know not how to
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[gi] apologize for. Poor Fuseli sore from the lash of
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Envious tongues praises you & dispraises with the same breath he
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is not naturally good natured but he is artificially very ill
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natured yet even from him I learn the Estimation you are held in
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among artists & connoisseurs.
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I am still Employd in making Designs & little Pictures with
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now & then an Engraving & find that in future to live will not
be
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so difficult as it has been It is very Extraordinary that London
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in so few years from a City of meer Necessaries or at l[e]ast a
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commerce of the lowest order of luxuries should have become a
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City of Elegance in some degree & that its once stupid
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inhabitants should enter into an Emulation of Grecian manners.
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There are now I believe as many Booksellers as there are Butchers
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& as many Printshops as of any other trade We remember when a
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Print shop was a rare bird in London & I myself remember when I
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thought my pursuits of Art a kind of Criminal Dissipation &
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neglect of the main chance which I hid my face for not being able
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to abandon as a Passion which is forbidden by Law & Religion, but
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now
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it appears to be Law & Gospel too, at least I hear so from the
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few friends I have dared to visit in my stupid Melancholy.
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Excuse this communication of sentiments which I felt necessary to
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my repose at this time. I feel very strongly that I neglect my
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Duty to my Friends, but It is not want of Gratitude or Friendship
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but perhaps an Excess of both.
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Let me hear of your welfare. Remember My & My Wifes
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Respectful Compliments to Mrs Cumberland & Family
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& believe me to be for Ever
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Yours
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WILLIAM BLAKE
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