Songs of Innocence: The Divine Image

Art Historical Context

William Blake's *Songs of Innocence: The Divine Image* (1789, printed ca. 1825) is a plate from one of the visionary artist's most celebrated illuminated books. Part of the Romantic-era *Songs of Innocence*, this work intertwines poetry and intricate imagery to explore themes of mercy, pity, peace, love as reflections of the divine. Blake, a poet, printmaker, and mystic, created these small-scale treasures (just 6 3/16 x 5 9/16 in.) as affordable yet profound art objects, challenging the boundaries between literature and visual expression during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Blake's revolutionary relief etching technique allowed him to print text and designs in a single orange-brown ink pass from etched copper plates, followed by exquisite hand-coloring with watercolor and shell gold for a glowing, jewel-like effect. Each impression, like this one from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection (Rogers Fund, 1917), is uniquely hand-finished, making no two copies identical—a testament to Blake's artisanal genius and rejection of industrial printing. Housed in the Met's Drawings and Prints department, this print exemplifies Blake's enduring cultural impact, bridging poetry and prophecy in a pre-industrial age. Visitors are drawn to its intimate scale and ethereal beauty, inviting contemplation of humanity's innate divinity.

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...