Urizen
1794
Medium
Monotype, with pen and brown and gray inks and watercolor, on cream wove paper
Dimensions
17 × 12.7 cm (6 3/4 × 5 in.)
Classification
monotype
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
151451
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Although produced as an independent work, this unique hand-colored print is based on one of Blake’s plates from The Book of Urizen (published 1794), among the artist’s most complex printed books. In it, Blake’s invented mythology describes Urizen as “Creator of Men,” a god of immense power who invented a repressive web of laws and religion based on reason. For Blake, Urizen’s laws limited energy and crushed the imagination. Here, Blake depicts Urizen as a bearded old man crouching beneath a lar...
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...