Place made
published by John Linnell, London
Medium
engraving on chine collé on paper
State
2nd edition
Dimensions
19.8 x 15.0 cm (image)
21.8 x 17.0 cm (plate)
45.9 x 34.2 cm (sheet)
Credit line
David Murray Bequest Fund 1954
Accession number
545G27
Signature and date
Signed in plate l.r. “WBlake invenit & sculpt”. Dated (incorrectly) in plate bot.c. “Published…March 8:1825(sic)…”.
Catalogue raisonne
Binyon 118; Bindman 638
Media category
Print
Collection area
British prints
  •  Ex Libris: the printed image and the art of the book, 2010

     

    The tale of Job is among the most moving stories depicted in the Bible; because of this, it has been of especial importance to many artists, none more so than to the British mystic, William Blake.

     

    In the Biblical account, Satan taunts God with the suggestion that Job’s religious faith is dependent on his material wealth. Denying this, God allows Satan to test Job and a series of terrible torments ensue: his livestock are stolen, his children killed and Job himself is infected with deadly disease.

     

    Plates eight and thirteen from Blake’s Illustrations of the Book of Job may be simpler, stylistically, than other illustrations from the series, but these plates portray the narrative’s most poignant moments. Job’s Despair renders the instant in which Job wishes to die and parts of his impassioned soliloquy, directed to God, appear at the edge of the engraving. Such terrible despair, however, disappears in The Lord Answering Job out of the Whirlwind. An image of intense beauty, God and Job come face to face within a whirlwind, delicately composed and ethereal in feeling. Job’s wonder is reinvigorated, his faith in God restored and thereafter, all his torments are reversed.

     

    For Blake, the story of Job was not one in which God gambled with a man’s happiness. Rather, it was an allegory—entailing that one must place less significance on material possessions and more on spiritual experience—if in search of a genuine relationship with God.

     

    Elspeth Pitt, Assistant Curator, Prints, Drawings & Photographs
  • William Blake's Engravings: The Book of Job and Dante's The Divine Comedy

    Art Gallery of South Australia,
  • Ex Libris: The printed image and the art of the book

    Art Gallery of South Australia, 13 April 2010 – 30 May 2010
  • Five Centuries of Genius: European Master Printmaking

    Art Gallery of South Australia, 5 May 2000 – 2 October 2000
  • [Book] Five Centuries of Genius: European Master Printmaking.
  • [Journal] Art Gallery of South Australia Newsletter.
    Art Gallery of South Australia Newsletter Vol. 6, no. 16 (Sept. 1985)-v. 6, no. 54 (Mar. 1989)
  • William Blake 28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827

    Behemoth and Leviathan

    1823-26; published 1874
    engraving on chine collé on paper
    Accession no: 545G29
  • William Blake 28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827

    Job accepting charity

    1823-26; published 1826
    engraving on chine collé on paper
    Accession no: 20153G19
  • William Blake 28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827

    Job accepting Charity

    1823-26; published 1874
    engraving on chine collé on paper
    Accession no: 545G33
  • William Blake 28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827

    Job and his daughters

    1823-26; published 1874
    engraving on chine collé on paper
    Accession no: 545G34
  • William Blake 28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827

    Job and his Family

    1823-26; published 1874
    engraving on chine-collé paper
    Accession no: 545G15
  • William Blake 28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827

    Job and his wife restored to Prosperity

    1823-26; published 1874
    engraving on chine collé on paper
    Accession no: 545G35
  • William Blake 28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827

    Job rebuked by his friends

    1823-26; published 1874
    engraving on chine collé on paper
    Accession no: 545G24
  • William Blake 28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827

    Job's comforters

    1823-26; published 1874
    engraving on chine collé on paper
    Accession no: 545G21
  • William Blake 28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827

    Job's evil dreams

    1823-26; published 1874
    engraving on chine collé on paper
    Accession no: 545G25
  • William Blake 28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827

    Job's sacrifice

    1823-26; published 1874
    engraving on chine collé on paper
    Accession no: 545G32
  • William Blake 28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827

    Satan before the Throne of God

    1823-26; published 1874
    engraving on chine collé on paper
    Accession no: 545G16
  • William Blake 28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827
    engraving on chine collé on paper
    Accession no: 545G19
  • William Blake 28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827

    Satan smiting Job with boils

    1823-26; published 1874
    engraving on chine collé on paper
    Accession no: 545G20
  • William Blake 28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827

    The Creation

    1823-26; published 1874
    engraving on chine collé on paper
    Accession no: 545G28
  • William Blake 28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827

    The Destruction of Job's sons

    1823-26; published 1874
    engraving on chine collé on paper
    Accession no: 545G17
  • William Blake 28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827

    The fall of Satan

    1823-26; published 1874
    engraving on chine collé on paper
    Accession no: 545G30
  • William Blake 28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827
    engraving on chine collé on paper
    Accession no: 545G27
  • William Blake 28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827
    engraving on chine collé on paper
    Accession no: 545G18
  • William Blake 28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827

    The Vision of God

    1823-26; published 1874
    engraving on chine collé on paper
    Accession no: 545G31
  • William Blake 28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827

    The wrath of Elihu

    1823-26; published 1874
    engraving on chine collé on paper
    Accession no: 545G26
  • William Blake 28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827

    Title page

    1823-26; published 1874
    engraving on chine collé on paper
    Accession no: 545G14