ILLUSTRATING JOB

Throughout his career Blake continued to create images expressing his interaction with the Book of Job. Blake read the Book of Job as an account of the spiritual journey of an individual. As he traveled his own journey through time he was led into a deeper understanding of the Eternal dimension of the Book of Job as a account of the psychological experience of integration. The account of Job's trials and breakthroughs to higher consciousness are portrayed through a group of characters undergoing interactions with one another, but it was the internal significance of the characters which produced a transformation of the psyche of the individual called Job. Blake's illustrations to the Biblical account are designed to encourage his viewers to turn inward to one's own encounter with the forces which impel one along the journey.

National Gallery of Art
Sketch of Job and his Daughters
1821

This is a list of images which are available on the internet through which you can follow Blake's extended response to the message in the Book of Job:
 
1793
Wash drawing of Job and His Tormentors
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
 
1793
Engraving of What is Man That thou shouldest Try him Every Moment?
British Museum
 
1800
Tempera Painting of Job and His Daughters
National Gallery of Art
 
c 1804
National Galleries Scotland - image from Wikimedia
Watercolor Painting of The Lord Answering Job from the Whirlwind
 
1805-6
Morgan Library and Museum
Set of 19 watercolor Illustration of Book of Job produced for Thomas Butts
 
1821
National Gallery of Art
Sketch of Job and His Daughters 

1821
Fogg Museum (Partial)
Set of 21 watercolor Illustrations of the Book of Job - copies of Butts set for Linnell 

1823
Fitzwilliam Museum
Sketchbook - 32 pages of sketches for engravings of Book of Job
 
1823-1825
British Museum
Engraved copper plates for The Illustrations of the Book of Job
 
1826
National Gallery Victoria
Engravings of 22 Plates of Blake's Illustrations of The Book of Job  

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Gates of Paradise, Plate 16, (E 33)
"16 I have said to the Worm, Thou art my mother & my sister"

Book of Job
18
[13] If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.
[14] I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou are my mother, and my sister.