Vadertje Tijd - William Blake
Archival giclée
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Description
A striking engraving by William Blake from his series illustrating Edward Young's Night Thoughts, depicting the allegorical figure of Father Time.
This engraving is a plate from William Blake's ambitious series illustrating Edward Young's poem, Night Thoughts. The composition features a personification of Father Time, depicted as an elderly, bearded figure with large wings, clutching a scythe. The figure crouches in a posture of weariness, his physical form rendered with the precise, linear clarity characteristic of Blake's late eighteenth-century printmaking technique. The text of the poem is integrated directly into the plate, creating a unified visual and literary experience.
Blake's approach to this commission involved creating watercolour designs for each page, which were then translated into engravings. This specific plate demonstrates his mastery of the burin, using fine hatching to model the musculature of the figure and the texture of his wings. The stark, monochromatic palette focuses the viewer's attention on the allegorical weight of the subject matter. The figure of Time, often associated with mortality and the relentless progression of human existence, is presented here with a sense of gravity that aligns with the philosophical tone of Young's verses.
Unlike many of his contemporaries who focused on decorative ornamentation, Blake utilised the page as a space for psychological and spiritual exploration. The figure's interaction with the text, appearing to emerge from the margin, suggests a fluidity between the written word and the visual image. This work provides an insight into the collaborative nature of eighteenth-century publishing, where the illustrator acted as an interpreter of the author's moral and theological concerns. The print remains a significant example of the intersection between British poetry and the visual arts during the Romantic period, reflecting the era's preoccupation with the passage of time and the human condition.
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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
Vadertje Tijd - 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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