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Urizen

A work made of monotype, with pen and brown and gray inks and watercolor, on cream wove paper.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of monotype, with pen and brown and gray inks and watercolor, on cream wove paper.

Date:

1794

Artist:

William Blake
English, 1757-1827

About this artwork

Although produced as an independent work, this unique hand-colored print is based on one of Blake’s plates from The Book of Urizen (published 1794), among the artist’s most complex printed books. In it, Blake’s invented mythology describes Urizen as “Creator of Men,” a god of immense power who invented a repressive web of laws and religion based on reason. For Blake, Urizen’s laws limited energy and crushed the imagination.
Here, Blake depicts Urizen as a bearded old man crouching beneath a large rock, adhering closely to the following verses from The Book of Urizen: “And a roof, vast petrific around, / On all sides He fram’d: like a womb.”

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

William Blake

Title

Urizen

Place

England (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1794

Medium

Monotype, with pen and brown and gray inks and watercolor, on cream wove paper

Dimensions

17 × 12.7 cm (6 3/4 × 5 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection

Reference Number

2012.74

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/151451/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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