Line engraving on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Art Fund
Collection
Illustrations to ‘The Book of Job’
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/william-blake-39" aria-label="More by William Blake" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">William Blake</a>
Job and his Daughters
Purchased with the assistance of a special grant from the National Gallery and donations from the Art Fund, Lord Duveen and others, and presented through the Art Fund 1919
actions: expressive
actions: postures and motions
adults
agriculture and fishing
arm / arms raised
attacking
beard
Bible: Old Testament
body
caption
crouching
daughter
family
family
father
fine arts and music
God
group
groups
inscriptions
instrument, lyre
Job
Job, chapter 1
Job, chapter 42
Judaeo-Christian imagery
man, old
objects
people
plants and flowers
ploughing
printed text
quotation
religion and belief
running
sitting
society
symbols and personifications
vine
weather
whirlwind
woman
work and occupations
<p>This is an illustration to chapter 42, verses 13-15 of the Book of Job. The main title comes from verse 15. The names of Job's daughters were Jemima, Kezia and Kerenhappuch. They are all seen against a background which depicts some of the trials Job has passed through. On the left is the destruction of his servants by the Chaldeans, described in Job, chapter 1, verse 17. On the right is the destruction of Job's ploughmen, described in chapter 1, verses 14-15. Behind Job's head God appears in the whirlwind. Blake treated this subject in his Job series and the print is shown nearby.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
paper unique line engraving
14 June 2008 – 31 August 2008
2008-08-31
14 June 2008 – 31 August 2008
2008-08-31
2008-06-14
Shipley Art Galley (Gateshead, UK)
2008-06-14
Eighteenth Century Blues
Loan-out
12 September 2012 – 31 January 2014
2014-01-31
12 September 2012 – 13 January 2013
2013-01-13
2012-09-12
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-09-12
Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde
Exhibition
20 April 2015 – 7 May 2017
2017-05-07
20 April 2015 – 7 May 2017
2017-05-07
2015-04-20
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2015-04-20
William Blake
Collection based display
Job and his Daughters
image: 199 × 151 mm
Purchased with the assistance of a special grant from the National Gallery and donations from the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a>, Lord Duveen and others, and presented through the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a> 1919
<p>This is an illustration to chapter 42, verses 13-15 of the Book of Job. The main title comes from verse 15. The names of Job's daughters were Jemima, Kezia and Kerenhappuch. They are all seen against a background which depicts some of the trials Job has passed through. On the left is the destruction of his servants by the Chaldeans, described in Job, chapter 1, verse 17. On the right is the destruction of Job's ploughmen, described in chapter 1, verses 14-15. Behind Job's head God appears in the whirlwind. Blake treated this subject in his Job series and the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>print</span></a> is shown nearby.</p>
Display caption
2004-08-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-job-and-his-daughters-a00031" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>A00031</span></a> [from] <b>Illustrations to <i>The Book of Job</i>: Engravings</b>
1823–6/1874 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-job-and-his-family-a00012" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>A00012</span></a>-<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-job-and-his-family-restored-to-prosperity-a00032" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>A00032</span></a>; <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-title-page-of-the-book-of-job-t05845" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T05845</span></a>; complete]
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<p>A 00012–32 /-
<br/>Twenty-two line engravings on india paper laid on drawing paper approx. 510×345 (20×13 1/2)
<br/>Purchased with the assistance of a special grant from the National Gallery and donations from the National Art-Collections Fund, Lord Duveen and others, and presented through the National Art-Collections Fund 1919
<br/>PROVENANCE John Linnell; his heirs, sold Christie's 15 March 1918 (183) £33.12.0.bt Martin for the donors
<br/>LITERATURE Gilchrist 1863, 1, pp.283–4, 297; Wicksteed 1910 and 1924; Russell <i>Engravings</i> 1912, 102–15 no.33: Keynes <i>Bibliography</i> 1921, pp.179–82 no.55: Binyon and Keynes 1935, series repr. vol.VI; Keynes <i>Engravings</i> 1950, pp.16–17, series repr.pls. 42–68; Keynes <i>Writings</i> 1957, pp.869–70, 872, 874, 876–7; S. Foster Damon, <i>Blake's Job</i> 1966, series repr.; Bentley <i>Blake Records</i> 1969, pp.234 n.i, 277–397 <i>passim</i>, 586–605; Andrew Wright <i>Blake's Job: A Commentary</i> 1972, series repr.; Lindberg 1973, pp.24–32, 40–52, 167–76, 183–352 nos.0A–21A, series repr.; Bentley <i>Blake Books</i> 1977, pp.517–24 no.421; Bindman <i>Graphic Works</i> 1978, pp.486–7 nos.625–46, series repr.; Mitchell 1978, pp.41–2; Essick <i>Printmaker</i> 1981, pp.92, 105, 220, 234–50, 252; Robert N. Essick, ‘Blake's Engravings to the Book of Job; An Essay on their Graphic Form with a Catalogue of their States and Printings’ in David Bindman, ed., <i>William Blake's Illustrations of the Book of Job</i> 1987, pp.35–101.
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<p>John Linnell, who had commissioned the second set of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolour</span></a> illustrations to the Book of Job in 1821, entered into a formal agreement with Blake for the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/engraving" title="Glossary definition for 'Engraving'"><span>engravings</span></a> on 25 March 1823: Linnell was to pay Blake £5 a plate or £100 for the set, and in addition he agreed to give Blake an extra £100 if the profits of the work made this possible. The agreement was for twenty engravings though in the event twenty-one subjects were engraved together with a title-page. On 5 March 1825 Linnell went with Blake to the printer J. Lahee to see proofs being taken. The series is dated 8 March 1825 but the final engravings do not seem actually to have been ready until the end of March 1826 (Bentley 1969, pp.277, 300 and 327). At this time 215 sets of engravings marked ‘<a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/proof" title="Glossary definition for 'Proof'"><span>Proof</span></a>’ were issued; these should be distinguished from the working proofs, on some of which Blake tried out designs for the borders. The word ‘Proof’ was then deleted (traces can be seen on <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-satan-before-the-throne-of-god-a00013" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>A00013</span></a>) and a further 100 sets were printed on <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a> <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/paper" title="Glossary definition for 'Paper'"><span>paper</span></a>. According to John Linnell Jr, writing to Bernard Quaritch on 6 May 1892, Linnell, after the 1826 printing, ‘put the plates away, &amp; they were never again used after this time until the year 1874. At this time my father...had one hundred copies printed from the plates upon India paper’. Although the distinctive cover is now missing, it seems that the Tate Gallery's copies of the engravings are from this 1874 printing. The original plates were given by Herbert Linnell to the British Museum <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>Print</span></a> Room on 28 May 1919.
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<br/>Each engraving is inscribed ‘W Blake inv. &amp; sculp’. In addition each is inscribed in the lower margin with variations of the text ‘London. Published as the Act directs March 8:1825 by William Blake No3 Fountain Court Strand’; the first actual design (<span>A00012</span>) is mistakenly dated with the year 1828 and ‘Will<sup>m</sup>’ is sometimes substituted for ‘William’, while the punctuation is also slightly varied.
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<br/>More importantly, the borders of each design bear a number of inscriptions taken from the Bible or with variations of biblical texts. These add a verbal gloss to the designs which in themselves embody Blake's critical reaction to the original story as set out in the Old Testament. The fullest analysis is in Lindberg though Wicksteed, Damon 1966 and Wright also contain full commentaries. Blake's interpretation of his text is only given in summary form in this catalogue.
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<br/>These engravings were formerly inventoried as nos.3372 i–xxii. The new inventory numbers omit the title-page.
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<br/><span>A00031</span> <b>Job and his Daughters</b>
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<br/>Line engraving 199×151 (7 13/16×5 15/16); platemark 217×170 (8 5/8×6 11/16)</p>
<p>Inscribed ‘WBlake invenit &amp; Sc’ b.r., ‘London Published as the Act directs March 8:1825 by William Blake N<sup>o</sup>3 Fountain Court Strand’ below, ‘20’ t.r., and with texts given below</p>
<p>EXHIBITED Tate Gallery 1958 (203, repr.)
<br/>
<br/>Illustration no.20: Job, xlii, 13–15. The main text is ‘There were not found Women fair as the Daughters of Job/in all the Land &amp; their Father gave them Inheritance/ among their Brethren’ (Job, lxii, 15). The two other quotations are from the Psalms: ‘How precious are thy thoughts/unto me O God/how great is the sum of them’ (Psalms, cxxxix, 17), and ‘If I ascend up into Heaven thou art there/If I make my bed in Hell behold Thou/art there’ (Psalms, cxxxix, 8).
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<br/>The Book of Job contains no more than a passing reference to Job's three daughters (and seven sons), to their beauty and to how Job gave them their inheritance; their names are also given, Jemima, Kezia and Keren-Happuch. Lindberg points out that Blake has drawn on the apocryphal Testament of Job in which Job, shortly before his death, tells his daughters of his afflictions and of his salvation. In the main design Job points out, on the walls of the room, depictions of incidents from his life. They are, on the left, the destruction of his servants by the Chaldeans (Job, i, 17) with Satan hovering overhead, on the right that of his ploughmen (by Satan himself, again shown hovering overhead, rather than by the Sabeans mentioned in Job, i, 15), and in the centre God appearing in the whirlwind (see design 13, no.122).
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<br/>All the other versions of this <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> among the various Job series and related sketches show the scene at least partially out of doors. However, in this, apparently the last version of the subject, Blake reverts to the interior setting of the small <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/t/tempera" title="Glossary definition for 'Tempera'"><span>tempera</span></a> painted <i>c</i>. 1799–1800 for Thomas Butts (Butlin 1981, no.394, colour pl.500).</p>
<p>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Martin Butlin, <i>William Blake 1757-1827</i>, Tate Gallery Collections, V, London 1990
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<br/>
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Catalogue entry
2004-09-22T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: expressive actions: postures and motions adults agriculture and fishing arm / arms raised attacking beard Bible: Old Testament body caption crouching daughter family family father fine arts and music God group groups inscriptions instrument, lyre Job Job, chapter 1 Job, chapter 42 Judaeo-Christian imagery man, old objects people plants and flowers ploughing printed text quotation religion and belief running sitting society symbols and personifications vine weather whirlwind woman work and occupations