William Blake at the Truchsessian Gallery

by Nikolas Maisch

The Romantic View

Through targeted advertising and numerous letters to London's upper class and members of the Royal Academy, the Truchsessian Gallery quickly became well known in England. The gallery was even mentioned in travel guides to Georgian London. For example, a travelogue about an American tourist's visit to the gallery has been preserved. However, the most famous visitor was probably the British poet and artist William Blake (1757–1827). For him, visiting the exhibition was a key moment in his artistic career. In a letter to his friend, the writer William Hayley (1745–1820), Blake described the influence of the count's paintings on October 23, 1804:

“Suddenly, on the day after visiting the Truchsessian Gallery of Pictures, I was again enlightened with the light I enjoyed in my youth, and which has been closed to me for exactly twenty years.”

For Blake, this visit and the experience in the Truchsessian Gallery represented a kind of rediscovery of artistic inspiration – a moment that moved him deeply and would have a lasting influence on his work.

Rubens as a source of inspiration

The works attributed to Peter Paul Rubens must have made a particularly deep impression on the British painter. In a series of watercolors on the New Testament, which Blake created between 1800 and 1805, he takes up the scene of the conversion of Paul – the moment when the future apostle is seized by the light of God. Such a motif of the Conversion of Saul was included in Count Joseph's collection and was attributed to Rubens there.

However, a painting with this motif that has been reliably attributed to Rubens has been considered lost since World War II. The National Gallery in Washington, D.C., USA, only has an oil sketch of this painting. This Conversion of Paul after Rubens bears a strong resemblance to Blake's work: Roman soldiers with lances in the background, a falling horse, Paul thrown to the ground, looking up at the light and the angel – William Blake's watercolor has the same pictorial structure and an almost identical composition. It is therefore quite conceivable that the impressions from the exhibition directly influenced Blake's artistic work.

The connection between the Truchsessian Gallery and the British artist is also interesting because Blake, like many of his contemporaries, suffered from growing competitive pressure in the art market. After the French Revolution, many valuable paintings by Old Masters came to England from France. The English upper class preferred to buy these works for their city palaces and country estates. For British artists, however, this meant declining attention, less market presence, and fewer commissions. The count's painting collection was therefore not only a gallery exhibition, but also influenced contemporary art production in England to some extent.

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Citation: Nikolas Maisch, William Blake in the Truchsessen Gallery, in: art&market. The Truchsessen Gallery in London and the English art market around 1800, URL: [...], as of June 2, 2025.