The Arrow of Deliverance, from "Dalziels' Bible Gallery"

Art Historical Context

This striking wood engraving,The Arrow of Deliverance belongs to the ambitiousDalziels’ Bible* project, a Victorian publishing venture that ran from 1865 to 1881. Commissioned and engraved by the renowned Dalziel Brothers in collaboration with artists such as Arthur Murch, the series brought together leading illustrators to create dramatic scenes from Scripture. The work depicts a tense biblical moment involving a bow and arrow, rendered with the crisp precision characteristic of wood engraving on India paper—a technique prized for its ability to capture fine detail tonal subtlety before being mounted on card for presentation. As part of the Metropolitan Museum’s holdings in Drawings and Prints, this impression highlights the high artistic standards of mid-nineteenth-century reproductive printmaking. The Dalziel Brothers elevated wood engraving from a commercial craft into an expressive medium, allowing complex narratives to reach wide audiences through beautifully illustrated books. Though modest in scale, the print’s careful composition and dramatic subject invite viewers to reflect on themes of faith, deliverance, and human action that have resonated across centuries. Visitors can appreciate how such works bridged art and literature, offering both devotional inspiration and aesthetic pleasure to Victorian households while preserving the visual language of biblical storytelling for later generations.

About the Artist

Camden Press|Scribner and Welford|Dalziel Brothers|Arthur Murch (British|American|British) · 1857 |1800 |1839 –1893 |1899 |1893

British, London|New York, NY|British, active 1839–93