1943.419: Thy Sons and Daughters Were Eating and Drinking Wine (The Book of Job)
DrawingsAt center top, a demonic figure with bat-like wings and red skin crouches atop a stone pillar as it is toppling. He looks downward, casting flames from his outstretched hands onto the scene below him. At center below, an unclothed man balances on a staircase amid the ruins of a building, holding a small child on his shoulder with his left hand. At left, a group of women below him reach up to him, while at right other figures clutch at the steps. In the foreground a man has fallen at left, and a woman lies on the ground at left.
Identification and Creation
- Object Number
- 1943.419
- People
-
William Blake, British (London, England 1757 - 1827 London, England)
- Title
- Thy Sons and Daughters Were Eating and Drinking Wine (The Book of Job)
- Other Titles
-
Series/Book Title: The Book of Job
Alternate Title: Job's Sons and Daughters Overwhelmed by Satan - Classification
- Drawings
- Work Type
- drawing
- Date
- 1821
- Culture
- British
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/297682
Physical Descriptions
- Medium
- Watercolor, black ink and graphite on off-white antique laid paper
- Dimensions
- 29.2 × 22.4 cm (11 1/2 × 8 13/16 in.)
Provenance
- Recorded Ownership History
- Commissioned from the artist by John Linnell, 1821, sold through his sale [Christie's, London, March 15, 1918, as part of lot 149]; to Frank T. Sabin. Gabriel Wells, New York, by 1921, sold; to Grenville Lindall Winthrop, New York, 1922, bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943
Acquisition and Rights
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
- Accession Year
- 1943
- Object Number
- 1943.419
- Division
- European and American Art
- Contact
- am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
- Permissions
-
THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.
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Publication History
- Laurence Binyon and Sir Geoffrey Keynes, Illustrations of the Book of Job by William Blake (5 vols.), The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, 1935), vol. 1, pg. 24; vol. 3 whole series reproduced
- Agnes Mongan, "The Fogg Art Museum's Collection of Drawings", Harvard Library Bulletin, Harvard University (Cambridge, 1958), vol. 3, no. 2, March, pp. 5-9, p. 202
- G. E. Bentley, Blake Records, The Clarendon Press (Oxford, 1969), pp. 273-74
- Bo Lindberg, William Blake's Illustrations to the Book of Job, Åbo akademi (Åbo, Finland, 1973), pg. 212, no. 3C
- David Bindman, Blake as an Artist, Phaidon Press / E. P. Dutton (Oxford, England /New York, NY, 1977), pg. 208
- Martin Butlin, The Paintings and Drawings of William Blake, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT and London, England, 1981), no. 551 (3), pl. 735
- Anne Maheux, "An Analysis of the Watercolor Technique and Materials of William Blake", Blake: an Illustrated Quarterly (Spring 1984), 17, no. 4, pg. 128, fig. 3
- David Bindman, ed., William Blake's Illustrations to the Book of Job, The William Blake Trust (London, England, 1987), repr. fig. B on p. 3 of pl. 3: "The Fire of God is fallen from Heaven"
- Stephan Wolohojian, ed., A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press (U.S.) (New York, 2003), cat. no. 146, repr. (color)
- Stephan Wolohojian, Ingres, Burne-Jones, Whistler, Renoir... La Collection Grenville L. Winthrop, exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France, 2003), no. 146, repr.
- Robert Dupin, "La Collection Winthrop", Universalia, Encyclopaedia Universalis (Paris, France, 2004), pp. 343-344, p. 344
Exhibition History
- Exhibition of the Works of William Blake, Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 01/01/1876 - 12/31/1876
- Exhibition of Watercolors and Drawings by William Blake, 1757-1827, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 10/01/1947 - 11/30/1947
- A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Lyon, 03/15/2003 - 05/26/2003; National Gallery, London, 06/25/2003 - 09/14/2003; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 10/23/2003 - 01/25/2004
Related Objects
Verification Level
This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu