Los and His Spectre [verso]
c. 1804/1807
![Los and His Spectre [verso] by William Blake](https://images.artheonmuseum.org/nga/thumb/los-and-his-spectre-verso-nga-11501.webp)
Medium
graphite, squared
Dimensions
overall: 20.3 x 15.9 cm (8 x 6 1/4 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1943.3.8998.b
Art Historical Context
William Blake's *Los and His Spectreverso]*, created around 1804–1807, is a captivating graphite drawing from the visionary artist's mature period. Measuring just 20.3 x 15.9 cm, this intimate sketch belongs to the National Gallery of's Rosenwald Collection. Blake, a pioneering figure of British Romanticism, blended poetry, printmaking, and mysticism in his works, often inventing a personal mythology to explore the human imagination versus reason. In Blake's cosmology, Los embodies creative energy and prophetic vision, while his Spectre represents the shadowy, rational side that hinders artis...
About the Artist
William Blake · 1757–1827
William Blake (1757–1827) stands as one of the most visionary and unconventional artists in British history, a poet-painter-printmaker whose mystical imagination and radical vision profoundly shaped the Romantic movement. Born in London's Soho district, Blake experienced visions from childhood—claiming to see angels in trees at age eight—and these spiritual encounters would guide his art throughou...