Encyclopaedic resistance: Blake, Rees's Cyclopaedia, and the Laocoon separate plate

There is an obvious, and frequently noted, visual connection between Blake’s Laocoön separate plate (printed c. 1826; illus. 1)1 and the representation of the famous Laocoön sculpture on Plate III of the “Sculpture” engravings that he produced for Abraham Rees’s Cyclopædia (1802-20). Yet, in spite of there now being a significant—if small—body of works dealing with the former, there has been little investigation into either its relationship to the Rees venture, or the Cyclopædia’s relationship to it. James Bogan, in his 1980 essay “From Hackwork to Prophetic Vision,” did at least touch on these issues, but, although he commented that, in the Laocoön separate plate, “We are a long way from encyclopedia information,” and “If Blake had turned in this version of Laocoon to Abraham Rees, he would have been cashiered” (39-40), it is unfortunate that he failed to pursue this line of enquiry further. This failure, and the failure of subsequent critics, to tackle such issues may stem from the fact that, whilst it is now ten years since Robert N. Essick noted the disinclination of scholars to address Blake’s commercial engravings,2 the reluctance remains. Moreover, since there is a certain awkwardness when it comes to addressing even Blake’s engravings of other artists’ creative works, it should be no surprise that the association of this “visionary artist” with the production of a compilation such as an encyclopaedia seems to be regarded as an embarrassment. When Blake’s plates for the Cyclopædia are mentioned at all, they are generally dismissed fairly abruptly with a gesture towards Blake’s financial difficulties (e.g., Bogan, “Blake’s Jupiter Olympus” 156). Monetary considerations unquestionably did play a part in Blake’s acceptance of the Rees commission; yet this was the case with so many of Blake’s commercial engagements—not to mention those creative works produced under patronage, often to order3 —and none of those led to the creation of a work comparable to the Laocoön separate plate.