Dimensions: image: 33 x 77 mm
Copyright: CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Curator: This small wood engraving by William Blake, titled ‘And Unyok’d Heifers, Loitering Homeward, Low,’ possesses a stark, almost dreamlike quality. Editor: It’s the texture that strikes me—the raw feel of the engraved lines. You can practically sense the labor that went into its making. Curator: Absolutely. Blake, known for his radical approach, here inverts traditional engraving practices to achieve this unique effect. It speaks to his challenge against the established art institutions of his time. Editor: And the subject matter—a simple scene of cattle returning home. It highlights the value Blake placed on the everyday, the rural, challenging the hierarchy of artistic subjects. Curator: Indeed. It also offers a glimpse into the social context, reflecting the importance of agriculture and the lives of rural laborers in 18th-century England. Editor: This piece leaves me thinking about the power of simplicity, the potential for revolution in something as humble as a wood engraving.
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-and-unyokd-heifers-loitering-homeward-low-a00127
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Samuel Palmer was the most important of Blake’s followers, known as the Ancients. Palmer first met Blake in 1824. He described these illustrations to an imitation of the First Eclogue by the Roman poet Virgil as ‘visions of little dells, and nooks, and corners of Paradise’. Palmer’s art was particularly influenced by them. These prints appealed to the Ancients because they were the result of Blake’s experiments with a new medium; he had never engraved on wood before. Even at the age of sixty-four he wanted to make further explorations in his art. Gallery label, August 2004
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