Artwork
Job's Sacrifice
Job's Sacrifice is an ink print by the Romanticist artist William Blake. It dates from 1825 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Overview
Created in 1825, *Job’s Sacrifice* is an engraving by the English poet‑artist William Blake. Executed in his characteristic visionary manner, the print portrays a solitary figure in a desolate landscape, arms raised toward a luminous source. The work reflects Blake’s lifelong engagement with biblical themes and his commitment to expressing spiritual experience through print.
Subject & Meaning
The image draws on the biblical narrative of Job, presenting a man in a simple robe before a stone altar, his head inclined upward in an act of supplication. The gesture and the radiant light suggest a moment of prayerful offering, emphasizing devotion, endurance, and the human quest for divine reassurance amid suffering.
Technique & Style
Blake employed his distinctive engraving technique, incising fine lines into copper to achieve intricate textures and stark contrasts. The composition balances dense, almost mystical detailing of the figure’s tangled hair and garment with broader, atmospheric spaces that suggest distant mountains, a hallmark of his symbolic, Romantic visual language.
History & Provenance
The print emerged during Blake’s later period, after his brief residence in Felpham and throughout his lifelong London career. It was issued as part of his private series of religious prints, circulating among a limited circle of patrons and fellow artists, and has since entered public collections devoted to Romantic-era printmaking.
Context
Produced amid the Romantic movement’s fascination with individual emotion and the sublime, the engraving reflects contemporary interests in biblical allegory as a vehicle for exploring inner experience. Blake’s work, situated alongside his poetic output, demonstrates his belief that imagination could reveal deeper spiritual truths beyond rational doctrine.
Artist & collection
Artist
William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter and printmaker.
