The Wandering Moon - William Blake
Archival giclée
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Description
A delicate watercolour illustration by William Blake, depicting a personified moon floating above a solitary observer, created for Milton's L'Allegro.
This work is one of several illustrations William Blake produced for John Milton's poem, L'Allegro. The composition depicts a female figure, representing the moon, floating through the night sky. She is draped in a light, flowing garment, surrounded by a soft, ethereal cloud formation. Below, a solitary male figure, often interpreted as the poet himself, stands on the shore, gazing upward at the celestial apparition. In the distance, a small church spire rises above the tree line, grounding the scene in a recognisable English setting.
Blake utilised his characteristic method of pen and ink combined with delicate watercolour washes. The palette is muted, relying on soft blues, greys, and earthy greens to convey the quiet atmosphere of a night scene. The figure of the moon is rendered with a sense of weightlessness, contrasting with the solid, dark silhouette of the observer on the bank. The lines are precise, reflecting Blake's training as an engraver, while the washes provide a soft, dreamlike quality to the sky and water.
This illustration demonstrates Blake's interest in the intersection of poetry and visual art. He often sought to interpret the works of others through his own imaginative lens, rather than providing literal depictions. The focus remains on the spiritual and symbolic nature of the encounter between the human observer and the personified celestial body. The work is currently held in the collection of the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York, forming part of a series that explores the themes of light, darkness, and the natural world as presented in Milton's verse.
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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
The Wandering Moon - 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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