The Ghost of a Flea

William Blake painted The Ghost of a Flea around 1819 in tempera on mahogany — a compact, jewel-like image based on a vision Blake claimed to have experienced. A monstrous humanoid figure with a bowl collecting blood strides across a stage-like space, while a flea — portrayed by Blake as the vessel for the souls of bloodthirsty men — embodies cruelty made flesh. The painting emerged from Blake's visionary séances with the astrologer John Varley, who sketched Blake's visions as they came. The compact scale and supernatural imagery exemplify Blake's unique fusion of prophetic vision with meticulous pictorial craft.

The tiny, jewel-like painting combines meticulous detail with hallucinatory intensity. Blake's muscular figure is depicted with an almost scientific precision of anatomical detail, while the gold-flecked curtains and starry background create a theatrically supernatural atmosphere.