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A group of people look on as a man peers over a cloud, pointing downward at a pair of monstrous creatures.

At top, a bearded figure with white hair and a long beard leans over a cloud, pointing one arm straight downward at a scene showing two creatures. Angels hover at either side of him, and just below his cloud, a group of five figures look down at the creatures to which he points. One creature, at center, resembles a fanged elephant with human ears. Below it, a coiled sea serpent breaches out of a lake, rearing its head and baring its teeth.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.415
People
William Blake, British (London, England 1757 - 1827 London, England)
Title
Behold Now Behemoth, Which I Made With Thee (The Book of Job)
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Behemoth and Leviathan
Series/Book Title: The Book of Job
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
book
Date
1821
Culture
British
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/297860

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Watercolor, black ink and graphite on off-white antique laid paper
Dimensions
27.5 × 20 cm (10 13/16 × 7 7/8 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, 1923, 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
1943.415
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
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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. 37, 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. 209. 15C
  • 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 (15), pl. 747
  • Anne Maheux, "An Analysis of the Watercolour Technique and Materials of William Blake" (thesis (certificate in conservation), Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, July 16, 1982), Unpublished, pp. 1-50 passim
  • 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. 15, "Behold now Behemoth which I made with thee"
  • 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. 147, repr. (color)
  • Christopher Riopelle, Harvard's Winthrop Collection: Nineteenth-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, exh. cat., National Gallery Company Limited (London, 2003), p. 15, cat. 2, ill.
  • 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. 147, 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

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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