Job and His Family 1825

William Blake created this engraving, "Job and His Family," using metal plates to transfer his vision onto paper. Blake was a master of relief etching. The intricate lines, achieved through careful incisions, define forms and create texture. Note how the density of lines builds shadow, giving depth to the scene. Engraving was a laborious, skilled craft in Blake's time, tied to the printing industry and the broader world of commerce and book production. Blake pushed against this system. He printed his own works, combining text and image in ways that challenged conventional book design. His methods allowed him a unique degree of artistic control, making him not just an artist, but an author and publisher too. By attending to Blake's process, we see how his art was deeply connected to both the means of production and his own radical vision. This reminds us that art is always made, and that the how of making is as important as the what.