The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins
ca. 1799–1800
Medium
Watercolor, pen and black ink, brush and wash, over graphite
Dimensions
Sheet: 14 3/16 × 13 1/16 in. (36 × 33.2 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1914
Accession Number
14.81.2
Tags
Art Historical Context
William Blake's *The Parable of the and Foolish Virgins (ca. 1799–1800) vividly illustrates a biblical story from Matthew 25, where ten virgins await a bridegroom: five wise ones prepared with oil for their, and five foolish ones who run out and miss the wedding feast. Created during Blake's prolific late-1790s period, this captures his visionary Romantic style, blending spiritual symbolism with human drama. The women, central to the composition as noted in the tags, embody themes of foresight, faith, and divine judgment, rendered in ethereal forms that glow against shadowy depths. Blake's ma...
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...