The Book of Job, plate 20: There were not found Women fair as the Daughters of Job in all the Land

William Blake · 1825
The Cleveland Museum of Art

Plate 20 of William Blake’s Job engravings (1825). Job has three daughters again, the most beautiful in the land.

Blake shows Job telling them his story: his arms reach out towards pictures on the walls of the room — his disasters and the whirlwind — while the daughters listen. The text names the daughters but tells no such scene. A border of vines with a lyre and a lute surrounds it.

From the text

Jemimah, Keziah and Keren-happuch (Job 42:14)

“No women as beautiful as Job’s daughters could be found in all the land” (Job 42:15)

An inheritance among their brothers (Job 42:15)

The artist’s own

Job telling his daughters his story, with pictures on the walls

A border of vines, a lyre and a lute

Details

Job

He sits with both arms stretched out towards the walls.

His daughters

Three young women sit round him, one bowed at his knees.

Pictures of the past

A roundel on the wall shows a scene of slaughter.

Lyre

A lyre lies in the corner of the vine border.

William Blake, British, 1757–1827. The Cleveland Museum of Art (Mr. and Mrs. Charles G. Prasse Collection, 1963.303.21) · 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/).