The Last Trumpet (recto); Two studies of a right eye, a profile of an open-mouthed young man, the head of an eagle, and the head of a lion (verso)
In this dynamic working drawing Blake, Britain's great early Romantic poet/artist, presents the resurrection of believing souls at the last day. The image echoes lines from Saint Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians (4:15–17): "For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first." Blake imaginatively combined all three divine agents. Initially he sketched the central trumpet-blowing figure from the side, then scraped the form away and redrew it. In its final conception the trumpeter’s thrusting instrument puts the viewer in the position of a rising soul. In the 1780s and 1790s Blake typically worked out ideas for multifigural compositions in monochrome drawings such as this, using a pen to define forms and brushed wash for the shadows.
Artwork Details
- Title: The Last Trumpet (recto); Two studies of a right eye, a profile of an open-mouthed young man, the head of an eagle, and the head of a lion (verso)
- Artist: William Blake (British, London 1757–1827 London)
- Date: 1780–85
- Medium: Recto: pen and gummed carbon black ink and layered gray ink washes with graphite underdrawing and reductive techniquesVerso: black chalk
- Dimensions: sheet: 8 1/16 x 8 3/8 in. (20.5 x 21.2 cm)
- Classification: Drawings
- Credit Line: Fletcher and Van Day Truex Funds, 2011
- Object Number: 2011.448
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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William Blake
1841–50
Multiple artists/makers
1885, facsimile of 1790
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1904
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1965
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March 1, 1813
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