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Plate 1
Plate 14
Samuel Palmer
William Blake, Illustrations of the Book of Job, engraving
William Blake is regarded as one of the greatest creative geniuses of the Romantic era, valued for the visionary power of both his poetry and his art. However, in his own time, he struggled to make ends meet and his work attracted little attention. His Illustrations of the Book of Job comprises twenty-one plates, the first and last of which are shown here. They tell the Biblical story of Job, as interpreted by Blake.
Blake believed that Job was at fault at the beginning because he obeyed the form rather than the spirit of religion. Plate 1, 'Thus did Job continually', shows Job and his family sitting beneath a tree, praying devoutly. On the other hand, after experiencing adversity and the supernatural, Job came to understand the spirit world and became enlightened. Therefore the final plate, Plate 14, 'When the morning Stars', shows Job rising up, singing and dancing.
Samuel Palmer and his associates - known as the Ancients - were part of a small group of people who admired Blake in the last years of his life. The Job illustrations, with their pastoral imagery and highly textured manner of engraving, certainly influenced Palmer's work. Plate 1 in particular had a direct impact on many of Palmer's designs. Blake turned out to be the single most important influence in Palmer's life.