Illustration to Edward Young's Night Thoughts - William Blake
Archival giclée
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Description
A detailed engraving by William Blake from his 1797 series illustrating Edward Young's poem, Night Thoughts.
This engraving is a plate from the 1797 edition of Edward Young's poem, Night Thoughts, illustrated by William Blake. The work displays the characteristic synthesis of text and image that defines Blake's approach to book production. The central block of letterpress text is surrounded by a fluid, imaginative composition that extends into the margins of the page.
Blake employs a distinct visual language here, featuring elongated figures and ethereal, cloud-like forms that suggest a dreamlike or visionary state. At the base of the page, a figure reclines, gazing upward toward a celestial horse that emerges from a swirling, atmospheric background. The line quality is precise, typical of the copperplate engraving techniques Blake utilised to translate his own watercolour designs into print. The composition balances the rigid geometry of the printed text with the organic, flowing lines of the surrounding figures and natural elements.
This series of illustrations represents a significant collaboration between the poet Edward Young and the artist. Blake was commissioned by the publisher Richard Edwards to create a series of designs for the poem, which he then engraved himself. The resulting work is a fusion of eighteenth-century moralising poetry and the idiosyncratic, visionary aesthetic of the Romantic period. The imagery does not merely decorate the text but engages with the themes of mortality, nature, and the human condition presented in Young's verses. The monochromatic palette focuses the viewer's attention on the interplay of light and shadow, creating a sense of depth within the two-dimensional space of the book page. This print offers a view into the intersection of literature and visual art in late eighteenth-century Britain, reflecting the period's interest in the sublime and the spiritual.
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Because every print is made to order, we don't offer change-of-mind returns, refunds or exchanges. If your order arrives faulty, damaged or incorrect, we'll replace it free of charge — just contact us within 48 hours of delivery. See our refunds page for full details.
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Manufacturing
Each print is produced to order using 12-colour giclée printing on FSC-certified archival paper. Designed in Britain and printed at your nearest production hub to reduce waste and speed up delivery.
Care and materials
Specific Features
Every Solis piece is made to order with archival, gallery-quality materials built to last.
- Museum-grade giclée printing for rich, fade-resistant colour
- Archival matte fine-art paper, FSC-certified
- Multiple sizes and framing options available
- Frames in black, natural wood, dark wood or white
- Framed prints arrive ready to hang
Care & Cleaning
To keep your artwork looking its best:
- Dust gently with a soft, dry cloth
- Avoid prolonged direct sunlight
- Never use liquid cleaners on the print or canvas surface
- Keep in a dry, room-temperature space
- Handle prints with clean, dry hands
Materials & Sizing
Museum-grade giclée on FSC-certified archival matte paper, with framed and canvas options.
- Paper sizes: A4, A3, A2, A1, A0 and B2 (50×70 cm)
- Canvas: XS (20×30 cm) to Large (60×90 cm)
- Frames: black, natural wood, dark wood or white
Illustration to Edward Young's Night Thoughts - William Blake
Artist Biography
William Blake
He married Catherine Boucher in 1782. She was illiterate at the time and signed the marriage register with an X. He taught her to read, write, and engrave, and she became his collaborator for the next forty-five years: mixing paint, operating the printing press, hand-colouring plates, and binding the finished pages into covers.
Their working method was Blake's own invention, revealed to him (he said) in a dream by the spirit of his dead brother Robert. Relief etching reversed the standard printmaking process: instead of cutting lines into copper, Blake wrote and drew on the plate in acid-resistant varnish, then dissolved the surrounding metal with acid, leaving text and image raised. This allowed him to compose poetry and illustration simultaneously on a single plate, print them together, then hand-colour each sheet in watercolour. Every copy was therefore unique. Songs of Innocence and of Experience was produced this way. He sold fewer than thirty copies during his lifetime.
In 1803, he physically threw a soldier named John Schofield out of his garden in Felpham. He was charged with assault and with uttering treasonable expressions against the King. He was acquitted at the Chichester assizes in January 1804.
Newton, painted in 1795, shows the scientist as a young man with the body of a Greek god, bent forward at the bottom of a dark ocean, fixing his gaze on a pair of compasses, measuring and drawing on a scroll that appears to project from his own head. It is a painting about the limits of reason: beautiful, precise, and missing everything beyond the edge of the paper. The Ancient of Days, from the same period, depicts his mythological figure Urizen crouching at the edge of a void, reaching down with a compass to measure the darkness below.
He died on 12 August 1827, working on illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy. He was buried at Bunhill Fields. The wider recognition came decades later.
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