The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun - William Blake
Archival giclée
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Description
A powerful watercolour illustration by William Blake, depicting the apocalyptic vision of the Great Red Dragon and the woman from the Book of Revelation.
William Blake produced this work as part of a series of watercolours commissioned by Thomas Butts to illustrate the Book of Revelation. The composition depicts the apocalyptic vision described in chapter twelve, where a woman appears in heaven, clothed with the sun, while a seven-headed dragon waits to devour her child. Blake employs a distinct visual language, using fluid lines and a warm, atmospheric palette to render the supernatural subject matter.
The dragon dominates the upper portion of the frame, its massive wings spread wide to create a sense of looming threat. Below, the woman is positioned in a posture of supplication, her form illuminated by a golden radiance that contrasts with the darker, earthy tones surrounding the beast. Blake uses watercolour washes to build depth, allowing the paper to show through in lighter areas to suggest a celestial glow. The figures are rendered with a focus on expressive anatomy rather than strict realism, a hallmark of Blake's personal mythology and his approach to visionary art.
This piece demonstrates the artist's ability to translate complex theological narratives into immediate, visual form. The interaction between the two figures is defined by tension and scale, with the dragon's muscular, serpentine form pressing down upon the scene. Blake's technique involves precise ink outlines filled with layered watercolour, a method he refined throughout his career to achieve a specific luminosity. The work remains a primary example of his late-period output, where he moved away from traditional academic constraints to explore themes of spiritual conflict and divine revelation. It is currently held in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum, reflecting the artist's long-term engagement with the imagery of the Bible.
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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
The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun - 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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