Job Rebuked by His Friends
1825
Medium
engraving on thin paper
Classification
Portfolio
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1943.3.1690
Art Historical Context
William Blake's *Job Rebuked by Friends* (1825) is a poignant engraving from the artist's monumental series *Illustrations of the Book Job*, one of his final and most ambitious projects. Created in the twilight of Blake's career—he passed away just two years later—this work draws from the Old Testament story of Job, a righteous man tested by unimaginable suffering. Here, Blake captures the tense moment when Job's comforters—Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar—rebuke him, mistaking his trials for divine punishment. As a visionary Romantic artist and poet, Blake infused the scene with his mystical world...
About the Artist
William Blake · 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...