The Holy Family (Christ in the Lap of Truth) (c. 1805): Art, History and Details

The Holy Family (Christ in the Lap of Truth) (c. 1805) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is William Blake (British, 1757–1827).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Although he rejected institutionalized religion, Blake was intensely spiritual, and much of his art was inspired by a highly personal reading of the Bible or by literature based upon it, such as John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667). The Virgin Mary is centered in this highly stylized composition. Upon her lap she clasps the infant Christ whose outstretched arms foreshadow the Crucifixion. The Mother and Child are flanked by Saint Joseph on the left, and Saint Anne (the Virgin’s mother), on the right. Below, Saint John the Baptist, who foretold Christ’s death and resurrection, plays with a lamb.

Object facts

• Title: The Holy Family (Christ in the Lap of Truth)
• Date: c. 1805
• Creator attribution: William Blake (British, 1757–1827)
• Culture: England, London
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: black, gray, and brown ink applied with pen and point of brush; gray, pink, yellow, and green wash
• Dimensions: Sheet: 37.9 x 32.5 cm (14 15/16 x 12 13/16 in.)
• Collection: DR - British
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 1950.239

A detail from the museum

This drawing was first owned by Thomas Butts, an English civil servant who became William Blake's most important patron and supporter for about two decades.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Gilchrist, Alexander and William Michael Rossetti. Life of William Blake: "Pictor Ignotus," with Selections from His Poems and Other Writings. London: R. Clay, Son, and Taylor, 1863.
• Exhibition of the Works of William Blake. Exh. Cat. London: Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1876.
• Gilchrist, Alexander and William Michael Rossetti. Life of William Blake with Seleions from His Poems and Other Writings. London: Macmillan, 1880.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.