William Blake, Jacob's Ladder 1799-1806. Pen and grey ink and watercolour on paper © The Trustees of the British Museum

Exhibition Preview - William Blake's 1809 Solo Exhibition at Tate Britain from April 20 2009 to October 4 2009.

Picture the scene: May 1809, a smoky back street shop set amidst the bustling squalor of Regency London. Its walls are lined with strange paintings bursting with thick-limbed figures, mythological beasts, scenes from the Old Testament and dark depictions of contemporary politicians surrounded by demons and gold celestial swirls.

The little visited display was the only solo show of paintings ever undertaken by William Blake and the venue was Blake’s brother’s print shop on Golden Square, Soho. Comprising 16 works, it was the artist’s most significant attempt to create a public reputation for himself as a painter.

Sadly it was not a critical success: only a single negative review was published in the press and the show was very poorly attended, much to the artist’s intense dismay. It also proved to be a turning point in Blake’s life, leading him to withdraw yet more fully from the public realm and become even more embittered about the state of the British art world.

To mark the 200th anniversary of the artist’s ill-fated solo exhibition, Tate Britain is reuniting nine of the surviving works. A new edition of Blake’s Descriptive Catalogue (1809) will also be published by Tate Publishing to coincide with the display.

The Tate display will include works from the Tate Collection along with important loans from the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, The Fitzwilliam Museum, and Southampton Art Gallery.

It will highlight Blake's distinctive use of watercolour and tempera, which he called 'fresco painting' in imitation of the great painters of the Renaissance. The watercolour The Soldiers Casting Lots for Christ's Garments (1800) will be displayed alongside tempera paintings such as Satan Calling up his Legions (1795-1800).

The Spiritual Form of Pitt Guiding Behemoth 1805. Tempera heightened with gold on canvas. © Tate

Among the nine remaining works, visitors will be able to view works such as Jacob's Ladder (1799-1806) and The Spiritual Form of Pitt Guiding Behemoth (1805).

The display will also include a number of related works by Blake, and more conventional paintings in oil colours and watercolour exhibited in other exhibitions in London in 1809 - including pictures by JMW Turner.

Despite being overlooked by many of his contemporaries, Blake was always certain that his achievement as artist, poet, prophet and visionary, would one day be properly recognised and today he is one of the most revered and intensively studied British artists of any era.

Regarded as a visionary, his works – from poems and writings to paintings and prints – are held in most of the major collections of the world and regarded as seminal works from what is now called the Romantic age.

In the early 1920s, Tate created the first ever gallery devoted to his work. To this day a designated Blake gallery, with regularly changing displays, is a permanent feature at Tate Britain, playing a significant role in shaping the extraordinary public reputation which Blake now enjoys.

The new display is part of the BP British Art Display and admission is free. It opens on April 20 2009 and will run until October 4 2009.

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