Blake's Illustrations for the Book of Job [Paperback]

William Blake (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 16, 1995

Among Blake's finest works: 21 watercolors interpreting the great biblical book and its theme of unmerited suffering. Also presented here are 11 additional watercolors, plus 28 black-and-white illustrations, including 21 extraordinary engravings based on the watercolors. All reproduced from a rare, limited facsimile edition published by The Pierpont Morgan Library. New introductory essay. 60 illustrations.

Product Details

• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (November 16, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486287653
• ISBN-13: 978-0486287652
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 9 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #142,831 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Inexpensive source for dramatic Biblical images. Buy it, July 14, 2008

By 

B. Marold "Bruce W. Marold" (Bethlehem, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Blake's Illustrations for the Book of Job (Paperback)

`Blake's Illustrations for the Book of Job' by the great 18th century illustrator and poet, William Blake, is a superior source of inexpensive copies of these works, which the publisher characterizes as `among the artist's greatest achievements'.
The best feature of the volume, aside from its reasonable price, is the size of the illustrations. As long as one is willing to stress the spine of the book a bit, it is very easy to make excellent scans of the illustrations. And, if one needs especially high quality scans of the large color reproductions, you can cut out the page(s) to insure that they lay flat on the scanning bed with no shadow creeping in along the edges. Since the list price of the book is less than $10, it is virtually no hardship to buy two copies of the book to have one intact on your shelves while the second copy gives up its pages for your presentations.
For those unfamiliar with Blake's work, it's important to know that he did not one, but at least two full series of illustrations, both of which are in this volume. The first is a series of 21 black and white engravings, with borders including English and Hebrew writings relevant to the scene depicted. The second is a series of 21 larger color engravings, the Linnell set, made by manually applying watercolor to the black line image made by an engraving reproduction. Supplementing the color engravings are two additional sets (not of the full set of 21) called the Butts Set and the New Zealand set. There are some small variations in coloring and in line detail between the parallel images in the New Zealand set compared to the Linnell set reproductions. One advantage of the New Zealand set is that they are smaller, so they may be less difficult to scan and embed in a document.
Blake's Job illustrations are a terrific find for those who wish to do a Bible study of the Book of Job, as it reinforces the sense that this is one of the most powerfully written pieces of literature in the whole of Judeo-Christian scriptures.

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book that changed my life, November 6, 2000

By 

Jonathan Nelson (camp meeker, Ca United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blake's Illustrations for the Book of Job (Paperback)

I was shown a copy of this book 25 years ago. Blake's art transformed my world. I have been a student of Blake ever since. I still go back to this book often. This book, in a few pages, gave me an entry into Blake's system.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hevenly Images, August 19, 2004

By 

Juliana LHeureux "Maine Writer" (Topsham, Maine United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Blake's Illustrations for the Book of Job (Paperback)

Blake's Illustrations for the Book of Job makes me want to take a Bible study course, just to learn as much as I can about the compelling sketches so beautifully printed on the pages of this eye-catching book. Each lovely oversized page of this book depicts a Scripture episode found the Biblical Book of Job, all of them worth meditating on. I am particularly impressed by the images Blake paints of God, who appears consistently benevolent even in the face of Satan. This book creates fascinating imagery, painted by a man whose life was, apparently, somewhat fixated on this particular subject. Blake painted these images sometime in the early 19th century, but they are still contemporary and memorable. I really love this book for its artistic interest and as a subject for an art history course.