William Blake's Biblical Visions Explored

William Blake (1757–1827), English Romantic poet, painter, and printmaker, created around 80 biblical works commissioned by patron Thomas Butts. His interpretations blend spirituality, magic, and personal experience. At age eight, Blake reported seeing a tree full of angels in Peckham Rye, London. His c. 1805 work 'The Angels Hovering Over the Body of Christ in the Sepulchre' (Victoria & Albert Museum, London) depicts the moment before Jesus's Resurrection, evoking tension about the unknown after death. Blake, apprenticed to an engraver at 14, mastered the technique. His c. 1789 engraving 'Satan' (The Morgan Library and Museum, New York City), made after Henry Fuseli, portrays Satan as a tortured man using the oval-pointed echoppe needle, an 18th-century French method. In 'Satan Watching the Caresses of Adam and Eve' (1808, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), Blake shows Adam and Eve as lovers in Eden, observed by Satan with his serpent symbol. 'Cain Fleeing Abel' (1826, Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Cambridge, MA) completes the series. The works are held in multiple museum collections.