BLAKE'S JOB 1

British Museum
Illustrations of the Book of Job
Engraved Copper for Plate 7

The culmination of William Blake's lifetime of creating art to give form to imagination was the production of his Illustrations of the Book of Job. Blake had experienced a renewal of his interest in life when a group of young men who cared about art and the spirit adopted him as a mentor and teacher. Principle among this group was John Linnell who conceived the idea that Blake could produce a book based on the illustrations for the book of Job which he had painted years earlier for Thomas Butts.

The copper plates from which Blake's Illustrations of the Book of Job were printed are housed in the British Museum. Over the years the copper plates on which Blake made the images for his Illuminated Books were all lost or destroyed but the set of plates for Job are preserved. In contrast to Blake's technique for the Illuminated Books which was relief printing made through etching with acid the surfaces which were not coated with a resistant varnish, the Job technique is intaglio printing made through engraving or incising plates with metal tools. Although Blake often used both relief and intaglio on the same image, Laurence Binyon believes that in the Job illustrations Blake used the burin alone. 

This is the information which accompanies the plates for Job in the British Museum:

"All lettering on printing surface is in reverse; lettered within image with text integral to the design; lettered within image with production details, "W Blake inven & sculpt"; lettered below image with publication line, 
'London. Published as the Act directs March 8: 1825 by William Blake N 3 Fountain Court Strand'. Stamped on verso, partially legible, "[...]ntifex & C[...] / [...] Lisle Street / [...]oho London".

"Plate 8, numbered '7', in reverse, on the plate; a landscape with stone monuments and a hill in the background; to the left, Job sits beside a building, nude, partially covered with a blanket; his wife kneels behind him; to the right, three men walk towards them, their arms raised; borders engraved with pictures and text (in reverse), the line under the design beginning 'And when they lifted up their eyes...'. 1826 Copperplate, engraved and etched"

British Museum
Illustrations of the Book of Job
Print of Plate 7

Job.2

1. [12] And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.

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