William Blake Exhibition on Display in Budapest for the First Time

The exhibition The Marriage of Heaven and Hell – William Blake and his Contemporaries, featuring the British artist’s most significant works from the Tate Collection in London, will be open to visitors at the Museum of Fine Arts from Friday. This is the first time that a comprehensive exhibition of the work of William Blake (1757–1827), poet, painter, and printmaker, has been held in Hungary.

Zsolt Petrányi, deputy director of the museum, emphasized that the exhibition does not merely seek to present an era or an isolated artist, but also draws parallels with contemporary Hungarian art. Curator Csilla Regős illustrates this connection with the works of Lőrinc Borsos and Béla Kondor.

Ted McDonald-Toone, head of international relations at Tate, emphasized that Blake’s symbol-rich, spiritual world has influenced writers, painters, and pop culture for centuries. In his view, Blake’s art forms a bridge between the visible and invisible, the sacred and the profane.

The exhibition, featuring over 100 works, includes not only Blake’s works, but also those of his contemporaries, such as Henry Fuseli, Benjamin West, and J. M. W. Turner.

The thematic sections explore Blake’s multifaceted world: the “Poet Painter” section presents Blake’s illustrated poems, while “Fear and Danger” reflects the changes and turmoil characteristic of the late 1700s. “Fantastic Creatures” presents supernatural figures, while “Romanticizing the Past” and “The Gothic” reveal Blake’s historical and stylistic inspirations.

A separate section titled “Newton’s Body” is devoted to his famous work “Newton.” In the section “Satan and the Underworld,” visitors can see Blake’s depictions of an impending apocalypse.

William Blake’s iconic artwork “Newton” (1795-1805). Photo: Wikipedia / The William Blake Archive

The exhibition also examines his influence on Hungarian artists through examples from literature and the visual arts, including the works of Lőrinc Szabó, Antal Szerb, Béla Kondor, and Lőrinc Borsos.

The exhibition is the fourth collaboration between the Museum of Fine Arts and London’s Tate. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is open until January 11, 2026. The curators of the exhibition are Csilla Regős and Alice Insley.

Further information and tickets are available at mafab.hu.

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