138. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell 3

Although the title page is undated, the twenty-seven plates of Marriage were probably created in 1790, as is indicated in ink on this plate of a 1794 printing. The date highlights Blake's claim that at age thirty-three he represented a "new heaven" of artistic creativity. His third illuminated book, Marriage was his first created in Hercules Buildings in Lambeth. This copy, which was once owned by Thomas Butts, Blake's great patron, was "color printed" by applying the pigments for the background directly to the shallow-etched printing plate.

The Morgan also owns Copy C, one of the four copies printed in 1790.