Night the Second - William Blake
Archival giclée
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Description
An original engraving by William Blake from his 1797 illustration series for Edward Young's poem, Night Thoughts.
This engraving originates from William Blake's ambitious project to illustrate Edward Young's poem, The Complaint, and the Consolation; or, Night Thoughts. Commissioned by the publisher Richard Edwards in 1795, the project required Blake to create hundreds of designs surrounding the text. This specific plate, Night the Second, features a complex allegorical composition that reflects Blake's personal visual language.
In the image, the personification of Time is depicted as a large, reclining figure holding a scythe, a traditional attribute of mortality. The figure is surrounded by smaller, ethereal beings that represent the themes of death and friendship mentioned in the title. Blake employs a delicate, linear style, typical of his work in the late eighteenth century. The figures are rendered with a sense of weightlessness, their forms interacting with the surrounding text block in a manner that integrates typography and imagery. The composition is balanced, with the large, bearded figure of Time providing a stable base for the more fluid, smaller figures.
Blake's approach to the Night Thoughts project was unconventional. He drew his designs directly onto the margins of the copper plates, allowing the text to sit within the centre of his illustrations. This method created a dialogue between the printed word and the visual narrative. While the original commission was intended to be a multi-volume set, only the first volume was completed and published in 1797. This print captures the specific aesthetic of that publication, showcasing Blake's ability to interpret philosophical and theological texts through his own imaginative lens. The monochromatic nature of the engraving allows the viewer to focus on the precision of the line work and the symbolic arrangement of the figures, which remain characteristic of Blake's broader body of work during this period.
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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
Night the Second - 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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