William Blake | Illustrations to the Book of Job, 1825

William Blake

Illustrations of the Book of Job. Invented and engraved by William Blake. Published as the Act Directs... by William Blake, 8 March 1825 [but 1826]

Folio (438 x 340mm; sheet size c.428 x 325mm), ONE OF 215 "PROOF" COPIES, ONE OF 150 COPIES ON INDIA PAPER affixed to wove paper (support sheets to plates 10, 12, 16, and 19 watermarked "J WHATMAN | TURKEYMILL | 1825"), engraved pictorial title and 21 numbered plates designed and engraved by Blake, each plate marked "Proof", plate no. 1 (Job and his family praising God) misdated "1828", later straight-grained green morocco gilt with Riviere & Sons, spine gilt in compartments, spotting, light scuffing to boards

BLAKE'S RENOWNED ENGRAVINGS FOR THE BOOK OF JOB.

Blake had completed the designs for what would become his Illustrations for the Book of Job around 1805-1806 for Thomas Butts, a clerk to the commissary general of musters who had by then become Blake's major patron. The publication was not conceived of until ten years later, when John Linnell, hoping to provide his ageing friend with a much-needed income, offered to finance the engraving and printing. The plates were borrowed back from Butts in 1821, and Blake began the arduous task of the engraving. Although the title-page is dated 1825, publication was delayed until 1826, and the date amended on a label pasted to the boards in which the plates were issued.

According to Linnell's Job accounts, there were 150 "Proof" copies printed on India paper, 65 French paper "Proofs," and 100 plain copies on "drawing paper" printed after the word "Proof" had been burnished out of the lower right corner of each plate. 

LITERATURE:

Binyon 105-126; Bindman 625-646; Bentley 421A

PROVENANCE:

Sotheby's, London, 17 September 2013, lot 1