Job's Sons and Daughters Overwhelmed by Satan
1825
Medium
engraving on thick paper
Classification
Portfolio
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1943.3.1668
Art Historical Context
William Blake's *Job's Sons and Daughters Overwhelmed by Satan* (1825) captures a dramatic moment from the Book of Job in the Bible, where Satan unleashes on Job's family as part of a divine test of faith. Created as one of 22 engravings in Blake's *Illustrations of the Book Job*, this work embodies the artist's profound engagement with themes of suffering, divine mystery, and human resilience. As a key figure in British Romanticism, Blake infused the scene with visionary intensity, portraying swirling chaos and ethereal figures to evoke spiritual turmoil. Rendered in engraving on thick paper...
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...