£1m expected for watercolours that Blake made for a “petty sneaking knave” and The Grave
In 1805, William Blake was commissioned by Robert Harley Cromek to make a set of 40 drawings to illustrate Robert Blair’s poem The Grave, 20 of which Cromek proposed to have engraved by Blake.
A prospectus later promised 15 prints from designs “drawn and engraved” by Blake, but though Blake d…