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>
Lord Answering Job out Whirlwind
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
angel
beard
Bible: Old Testament
body
bowing
caption
crouching
family
God
group
groups
husband
inscriptions
Job, chapter 38
Judaeo-Christian imagery
kneeling
man
people
prayer
printed text
Psalms, 104
quotation
recoiling
religion and belief
society
symbols and personifications
universal religious imagery
weather
whirlwind
wife
woman
worship
<p>This is an illustration of the opening words of chapter 38 of the Book of Job. Blake quotes them in the main title of the print. The Lord appears and asks Job a series of questions, opening with 'Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?' The clockwise action of the Lord's appearance in the whirlwind permeates the whole of Blake's image. The trees in the bottom margin are bent low by the force of the wind, but, like Job in his adversity, they remain unbroken.</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
1 November 2011 – 21 October 2012
2012-10-21
1 November 2011 – 19 February 2012
2012-02-19
2011-11-01
State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow, Russia)
3 July 2012 – 21 October 2012
2012-10-21
2012-07-03
Fundació “la Caixa” (Madrid, Spain)
2011-11-01
Blake Exhibition
Loan-out
28 November 2011 – 19 February 2012
2012-02-19
1 November 2011 – 15 February 2012
2012-02-15
2011-11-01
State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow, Russia)
2011-11-28
Blake and British Visionary Art
Loan-out
The Lord Answering Job out of the Whirlwind
image: 198 × 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 of the opening words of chapter 38 of the Book of Job. Blake quotes them in the main title of 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>. The Lord appears and asks Job a series of questions, opening with 'Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?' The clockwise action of the Lord's appearance in the whirlwind permeates the whole of Blake's image. The trees in the bottom margin are bent low by the force of the wind, but, like Job in his adversity, they remain unbroken.</p>
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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-the-lord-answering-job-out-of-the-whirlwind-a00024" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>A00024</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>A00024</span> <b>The Lord Answering Job out of the Whirlwind</b>
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<br/>Line engraving 198×151 (7 3/4×5 7/8); platemark 217×170 (8 9/16×6 13/16)</p>
<p>Inscribed ‘WBlake invenit &amp; sculp’ b.r., ‘London Published as the Act directs March 8:1825 by William Blake N<sup>o</sup>3 Fountain Court Strand’ below, ‘13’ t.r., and with texts given below</p>
<p>EXHIBITED Tate Gallery 1958 (200, repr.)
<br/>
<br/>Illustration no.13: Job, xxxviii, i, the source of Blake's main title, ‘Then the Lord answerd Job out of the Whirlwind’. This quotation is continued by a line from the Psalms, civ, 3, ‘Who maketh the Clouds his Chariot &amp; walketh on the Wings of the Wind’. The other quotations are from the Book of Job: ‘Hath the Rain a Father &amp; who hath begotten the Drops of the Dew’ (Job, xxxviii, 28), and ‘Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge’ (Job, xxxviii, 2).
<br/>
<br/>The Lord appears in a new, active guise, questioning Job's lack of illumination and asking rhetorical questions about the Creation. The whirlwind has flattened the trees in the margin but, though bowed, they are not broken, just as Job has remained unbroken under adversity. In an early state of the engraving Blake showed the whirlwind bursting out of the central design into the margin above to much greater effect, but in the end he reverted to the usual clearly defined rectangle for the main design (repr. Bindman 1978, pl.638b).
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<br/>Blake had already treated this subject in his watercolour painted for Thomas Butts <i>c</i>.1803–5, ‘Job confessing his Presumption to God who Answers from the Whirlwind’, now in the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh (Butlin 1981, no.461, colour pl.538). 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/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> is completely different and the Lord is accompanied by angels. Job's wife, like the friends, bows down to the ground in fear rather than sharing in Job's vision.
<br/></p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Martin Butlin, <i>William Blake 1757-1827</i>, Tate Gallery Collections, V, London 1990
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-22T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: expressive actions: postures and motions adults angel beard Bible: Old Testament body bowing caption crouching family God group groups husband inscriptions Job, chapter 38 Judaeo-Christian imagery kneeling man people prayer printed text Psalms, 104 quotation recoiling religion and belief society symbols and personifications universal religious imagery weather whirlwind wife woman worship