"Awake! Awake Jerusalem..." (Plate 97) - YCBA Collections Search

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Print made by William Blake, 1757–1827, British, "Awake! Awake Jerusalem..." (Plate 97), 1804 to 1820

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Creator:

Print made by William Blake, 1757–1827

Title:

"Awake! Awake Jerusalem..." (Plate 97)

Part Of:

Collective Title: Jerusalem: The Emanation of The Giant Albion, Copy E

Date:

1804 to 1820

Materials & Techniques:

Relief etching printed in orange ink, with watercolor, pen and black ink, and gold on moderately thick, smooth, cream wove paper

Dimensions:

Sheet: 13 1/2 x 10 3/8 inches (34.3 x 26.4 cm), Plate: 8 1/4 x 5 7/8 inches (21 x 15 cm)

Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:

Inscribed in orange ink, upper right: "97"

Lettered inside image: "Awake! Awake, Jerusalem! O lovely Emanation of Albion, | Awake, and overspread all Nations as in Ancient Time. | For lo! the Night of Death is past and the Eternal Day | Appears upon our Hills: Awake, Jerusalem, and come away! | So spake the Vision of Albion, & in him so spake in my hearing | The Universal Father. Then Albion stretch'd his hand into Infinitude, | And took his Bow. Fourfold the Vision, for bright beaming Urizen | Lay'd his hand on the South & took a breathing Bow of carved Gold, | Luvah his hand stretch'd to the East & bore a Silver Bow bright shining, | Tharmas Westward a Bow of Brass pure flaming richly wrought, | Urthona Northward in thick storms a Bow of Iron terrible thundering. | And the Bow is a Male & Female, & the Quiver of the Arrows of Love | Are the Children of his Bow; a Bow of Mercy & Loving-kindness, laying | Open the hidden Heart in Wars of mutual Benevolence, Wars of Love: | And the Hand of Man grasps firm between the Male & Female Loves. | And he Clothed himself in Bow & Arrows in awful state, Fourfold, | In the midst of his Twenty-eight Cities, each with his Bow breathing."

Credit Line:

Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

Copyright Status:

Public Domain

Accession Number:

B1992.8.1(97)

Classification:

Prints

Collection:

Prints and Drawings

Subject Terms:

Access:

Accessible in the Study Room [Request]

Link:

https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:3532

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William Blake insisted that Jerusalem, his final prophetic book, was divinely inspired. Of the five copies he printed in his lifetime, only the edition now at the Yale Center for British Art was colored. Blake described his narrative as a “Sublime Allegory,” which he divided into four chapters that correspond to spiritual stages of human history, addressed “To the Public,” “To the Jews,” “To the Deists,” and “To the Christians.” The text has been linked to biblical precedents, particularly the Book of Revelation, as it begins after a universal fall and ends with redemption. However, Jerusalem is not a straightforward expression of Christian devotion. The illuminated text offers a critique of organized religion at a moment of spiritual uncertainty across Europe. Blake called for radical religious reform by liberating faith from the corruption and dogmatism of institutional churches and reimagining it in modern terms.

Gallery label for the Critique of Reason: Romantic Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2015-03-06 - 2015-07-26)

William Blake: Visionary (The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2023-10-17 - 2024-01-14) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

The Critique of Reason : Romantic Art, 1760–1860 (Yale University Art Gallery, 2015-03-06 - 2015-07-26) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

William Blake (Tate Britain, 2000-11-02 - 2001-02-04) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

The Human Form Divine - William Blake from the Paul Mellon Collection (Yale Center for British Art, 1997-04-02 - 1997-07-06) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

William Blake - His Art & Times (Art Gallery of Ontario, 1982-12-03 - 1983-02-06) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

William Blake - His Art & Times (Yale Center for British Art, 1982-09-15 - 1982-11-14) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Denise Gigante, Life, organic form and Romanticism , Yale University Press, New Haven, 2009, between p. 114 and p. 115, pp. 150-51, Pl. III. 13, PR575.L54 G54 2009 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Peter Otto, Multiplying worlds, romanticism, modernity, and the emergence of virtual reality , Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2011, pp. 208-14, fig. 8.9, PN769 R7 O77 2011 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Holly Shaffer, Grafted arts : art making and taking in the struggle for western India : 1760-1910, The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, New Haven, CT, p. 209, fig. 131, N72.P6 S53 2022+ (YCBA) [YCBA]

Colin Trodd, The Energy Man: Blake, Nietzscheanism and Cultural Criticism in Britain, 1890-1920, Visual Culture in Britain, 19, Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot, England, p. 296, N6761 V57 (LC) (YCBA) [YCBA]

William Blake : Visionary, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, p. 154, pl. 111, NJ18.B57 A12 2020 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

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