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When the Almighty Was Yet with Me

Artist/Maker (English, 1757–1827)
Date1825
MediumEngraving
DimensionsImage: 8 9/16 × 6 11/16 in. (21.8 × 17 cm)
Sheet: 17 × 13 1/8 in. (43.2 × 33.3 cm)
Credit LineR. T. Miller Jr. Fund
PortfolioPlate 2 from the Book of Job
Object number1943.92
Status
Not on view
More Information
Painter, poet and engraver, William Blake was an eccentric visionary and ardent nonconformist known for his mystical themes and innovative forms. His agile and elongated figures, influenced by Gothic sculpture and Michelangelo, are often pictured floating in a non-material world, adorned with symbols from his complex personal mythology. Blake's Book of Job integrates image and design with biblical texts that reconstruct the Old Testament in New Testament terms. The Job narrative, in which Satan tortures the upright Everyman in a test of faith, mirrors Blake's own artistic vision. Blake was deeply opposed to academic art, and in his interpretation of the tale Job is transformed from despair to redemption through a spiritual belief in the power of individual imagination.
Exhibition History
William Blake Prints
  • Carleton College Art Department (April 21, 1965 - May 9, 1965 )
Out of Albion: British Art from the Allen Memorial Art Museum
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 26, 2008 - December 23, 2008 )
Representing the Word: Modern Book Illustrations
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (January 29, 2013 - June 30, 2013 )
Collections
  • European