Death of the Strong Wicked Man, from "The Grave," a Poem by Robert Blair
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
plate: 8 1/8 x 10 1/4 in. (20.6 x 26 cm) sheet: 9 1/2 x 10 15/16 in. (24.1 x 27.8 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1966
Accession Number
66.555.54
Tags
Art Historical Context
"Death of the Strong Wicked" is a poignant engraving from William Blake's series illustrating Robert Blair's 1743 poem *The Grave*, a meditation on mortality and the afterlife. Designed by the visionary Romantic artist Blake and masterfully engraved by Luigi Schiavetti, this plate was published on May 1, 1808, by Cadell and Davies. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, it captures a dramatic moment of judgment and sorrow, evoking themes of death, sadness, male nudes, and mourning women through its intense composition. Blake's ethereal style, infused with m...
About the Artist
William Blake|Cadell and Davies|Robert Blair|Luigi Schiavonetti · 1757–1827
William Blake (1757–1827) stands as one of the most visionary and unconventional artists in British history, a poet-painter-printmaker whose mystical imagination and radical vision profoundly shaped the Romantic movement. Born in London's Soho district, Blake experienced visions from childhood—claiming to see angels in trees at age eight—and these spiritual encounters would guide his art throughou...