A bearded man and three women come in; he holds out a coin.
Bible in art · Job
The Book of Job, plate 19: Every one also gave him a piece of Money
William Blake · 1825
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Plate 19 of William Blake’s Job engravings (1825). Job’s relatives and old friends come back to him.
Job and his wife sit under a fruit tree, still bowed, as a man and three women arrive and offer a coin. The text says they dined with him in his house; Blake sets the visit outdoors beside a field of ripe wheat. Palm trees and flying figures fill the border.
From the text
- His brothers and sisters and prior acquaintances came (Job 42:11)
- “each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring” (Job 42:11)
The artist’s own
- The visit set outside under a fruit tree, not in the house
- A field of ripe wheat behind
Details
The visitors
Job and his wife
They sit together under the tree, heads bowed.
Fruit tree
Leaves and fruit hang over them.
Palm tree
Palms grow at the corners of the border.
William Blake, British, 1757–1827. The Cleveland Museum of Art (Mr. and Mrs. Charles G. Prasse Collection, 1963.303.20) · Engraving (proof impression) · Cleveland Museum of Art Open Access: Collection API record "share_license_status": "CC0" (Creative Commons Zero, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).