Songs of Innocence and of Experience: Infant Sorrow after 1794

Curator: Blake's "Infant Sorrow," one of his illuminated prints, gives us pause, doesn't it? It’s about 11 by 10 centimeters, a very intimate scale, combining image and text. Editor: It feels claustrophobic, doesn't it? That dark, dense printing… it embodies the feeling of being trapped, swaddled perhaps, by societal expectation. Curator: Yes, the labor certainly resonates in the final print. Blake’s unique method of relief etching, laboriously composing text and image, lends itself to this feeling, don’t you think? Editor: Absolutely. Knowing the painstaking process – the material effort – makes the 'sorrow' feel even more deeply embedded. It’s not just a concept, it’s physically impressed upon the page. Curator: Indeed, a marriage of artistic technique and powerful emotion, so typical of Blake. Editor: It’s more than just art; it's a statement about human experience and the societal structures that mold us.