テート・ギャラリーさんのインスタグラム写真 - (テート・ギャラリーInstagram)「🌃 It was during the dead of night many years ago, at 10 Great Titchfield Street, just off from Oxford Street, that William Blake and his close friend John Varley, were visited by the vision of a ghost of a flea. The picture we see before us is of a gnarled and wretched creature, holding a cup for blood-drinking as it stares eagerly towards it. While drawing the spirit, it told Blake that all fleas were inhabited by the souls of men who were ‘by nature bloodthirsty to excess’. On the reverse of the painting, a now almost unreadable inscription by Varley holds further knowledge of their encounter. ‘The Vision of the Spirit which inhabits the body of a Flea & which appeared to the Late Mr. Blake, the designer of the Vignettes for Blair's Grave & the Book of Job. The Vision first appeared to him in my presence & afterwards till he had finished this picture. A flea he said drew blood on this...’ The rest is indecipherable… 🩸 William Blake, The Ghost of a Flea, c.1819–20 📜 William Blake, The Head of the Ghost of a Flea, c.1819」10月24日 2時35分