A pupil of the artist John Varley, Finch was also a poet and musician loosely associated with the Ancients. Finch and other group members admired the same poets and were deeply suspicious of modern, industrial development, turning instead to an idealized rural idyll. Finch exhibited two watercolors illustrating the woodland setting of Milton's Comus at the Old Water-colour Society: one, most likely the present work, in 1835, and a later, possibly larger version of the same subject in 1844.
The present watercolor has been built up using dark pigments enhanced with gum arabic creating a somber but rich effect contrasting with the highlighting achieved through scratching out.
II. Friends and Followers
Among Blake's early friends were professors and other students at the Royal Academy, many of whom became leading figures of the age. He frequently engraved works by Thomas Stothard, Henry Fuseli, and John Flaxman, for example, as will be seen in this gallery. In his day Blake was more widely esteemed as a fine engraver than as a painter, his own imaginative work having been produced primarily on speculation or for patrons. Only nine years before Blake's death, the young artist John Linnell (1792–1882) became both a patron and friend. Through him Blake became acquainted with several youthful artists who came to call themselves the Ancients, after Blake's frequent reference to earlier artists as "ancients." They were inspired by Blake's imaginative spirit and his love for the art of Michelangelo as well as for the poetry of Milton. These men––Edward Calvert, Samuel Palmer, George Richmond, Francis Oliver Finch, George Cumberland, Frederick Tatham, and Henry Walter––are represented in the Morgan's collections.