Job Accepting Charity 1825

This is "Job Accepting Charity," made by William Blake, probably in the early 1800s. Blake was a singular figure in British art, deeply critical of the social institutions of his day. Here, we see a scene of Job being offered charity by a group of figures to the left, while he sits in a state of destitution with his wife on the right. Blake made this engraving to illustrate the Book of Job, a story about faith and suffering in the Old Testament. England at this time was seeing the rise of industrial capitalism and the attendant social problems of inequality and poverty. Blake was highly critical of the Church of England, seeing it as complicit with social injustice. The image is full of visual cues, from the biblical references to the depiction of charity itself, that would have been read by contemporary audiences as either confirming or challenging conventional attitudes toward charity. As historians, we can look at the changing forms of patronage in this period, the relationship between artists and the publishing industry, and the reception of Blake's work, to better understand the role of art in shaping social attitudes in England at this time.