Evening c. 1820 - 1825

Curator: Welcome. We are standing before William Blake's pencil drawing "Evening," created circa 1820-1825. Editor: Immediately, this makes me think of a memory barely grasped, something ephemeral trying to take form. She feels like a sigh. Curator: The figure's ethereal quality is largely due to Blake's meticulous use of line and the stark simplicity of his materials: pencil on paper. We can observe how the composition guides the eye upwards along her form, emphasizing her verticality and almost dreamlike ascension. Editor: She's holding...is that a scepter of some sort? There's something so delicate about her bearing. And those flowing lines—almost like she's exhaling into the evening air, blending with the paper itself. It reminds me of poems trying to be free from the constraints of ink. Curator: Yes, indeed. Consider also Blake's known preoccupation with spiritual and allegorical subjects, and how the linear style prevalent during the Romanticism enabled artists to convey inner visions and intense emotion through contour rather than detailed representation. Her garment flows creating the feeling of forward momentum as though she is taking off. Editor: This drawing also makes me wonder if it’s incomplete, but maybe that’s where its power lies. In its unfinished nature, it captures that feeling of something fading, turning, morphing right before our eyes as light slips away and shadows gather. Curator: One could also read the liminality within the work as suggestive of transition, both earthly and celestial. There's a distinct relationship here between negative space and form. Editor: Perhaps Blake left space deliberately to allow us to enter into the evening, to find our own shapes within the gathering gloom. I almost want to follow where her hand points to. Curator: An insightful remark! And so we shall take that path now into the following gallery... Editor: Beautiful. It really does carry the spirit of its subject—of things disappearing— within itself.