St Paul before Felix and Drusilla

Celebrated for his profound and beautiful poetry of the romantic period, William Blake, who was also a talented watercolourist and engraver, studied at the Royal Academy (RA) Schools and subsequently exhibited there from 1780 for almost thirty years. Despite his training at the RA Schools, Blake did not adhere to Joshua Reynolds’s traditional painting techniques and rigid narrative mode. The two artists did however share one trait: they both greatly admired classical antiquity, which is clearly evidenced in Blake’s artistic output. A deeply spiritual artist, Blake often illustrated his own poetry, as well as passages from the bible.

St Paul before Felix and Drusilla represents an episode from the Acts of the Apostles from the New Testament. Blake depicts St Paul as a larger-than-life figure, a bastion of the Christian faith evangelising Felix and Drusilla. St Paul, dressed in a burnt-orange smock, offers a stark contrast to the muted grey and flesh tones of the remaining protagonists and the stormy, almost gothic background. Blake uses the delightful softness of the watercolour medium to evoke a heightened emotional state and to convey his own sense of spirituality.

Tansy Curtin, Curator, International Art pre-1980