Then a spirit passed before my face - William Blake
Archival giclée
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Description
A striking engraving from William Blake's Illustrations of the Book of Job, depicting a supernatural vision with dramatic light and shadow.
This engraving is plate 9 from William Blake's Illustrations of the Book of Job, a series completed in 1825. The work depicts the moment from the Book of Job where Eliphaz the Temanite describes a vision of a spirit. Blake presents a central, rectangular scene framed by a border of text and organic, tree-like forms. Within the central frame, a luminous, ethereal figure stands above a group of seated, terrified men. The composition relies on strong contrasts of light and shadow, a technique Blake mastered to convey the supernatural nature of the event. The figures below are rendered with expressive, muscular forms, while the spirit above is defined by radiating light and a sense of weightlessness.
Blake's approach to the Book of Job is highly personal, moving away from literal interpretation toward a visionary narrative. The text surrounding the image is integrated into the design, a hallmark of Blake's illuminated printing style. The calligraphic script flows around the central image, reinforcing the connection between the visual and the literary. The surrounding border, featuring gnarled, leafless branches, adds a sense of unease and atmospheric depth to the composition. This print demonstrates Blake's technical skill as an engraver, using fine lines to create texture in the clouds and the drapery of the figures. The work remains a significant example of British Romantic printmaking, reflecting the artist's preoccupation with spiritual themes and the human condition. It is a stark, monochrome study that captures the tension between the mortal and the divine, presented with the precision and imaginative power characteristic of Blake's later career.
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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
Then a spirit passed before my face - 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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