English: The Pastorals of Virgil, copy 1, object 5 Frontispiece bb504 2 5 com 300bw

When planning a third edition of his successful school text, The Pastorals of Virgil, Robert John Thornton employed Blake to contribute some of the new designs for the two-volume work. Among his many other endeavors, Thornton was the physician for Blake's patron John Linnell, who probably played a key role in securing the commission. Blake's assignment was to illustrate Ambrose Philips' English "imitation" of Virgil's first eclogue.

Blake first produced four small designs (the same designs reproduced here as object 6) as relief etchings on a single copperplate, but this was rejected by Thornton. There may have been several reasons, including the unconventional style of etching, the semi-nudity of some of the figures, and the difficulties letterpress printers would have encountered with such an unusual matrix. Apparently Blake was asked to prepare wood engravings, a medium in which he had never before worked, instead of relief etchings. He executed a series of at least twenty-one pen, pencil, and wash drawings; these were probably approved by Thornton. The wood engravings that Blake produced from them, however, were far less conventional. Thornton was again taken aback by Blake's bold transgression of contemporary styles and sensibilities. Several influential artists, including Linnell and Sir Thomas Lawrence, commended Blake's work; their opinions convinced Thornton to print them in his 1821 edition (objects 5-8, 10). Three designs (object 9) were engraved by a journeyman for the sake of comparison with Blake's own productions in wood, and Thornton added a statement below Blake's first design (object 5) implying his own hesitations about Blake's artistry. Pre-publication proofs of Blake's wood engravings show that each group of four were cut on a single block; these were cut apart, slightly reduced in size on all four sides, and printed with brief letterpress captions. This format, as published in Thornton's Virgil, is preserved in our reproductions.

In addition to his original wood engravings, Blake contributed six copperplate intaglio engravings picturing famous classical figures (objects 1-4, 12, 13). He also executed a reduced drawing, perhaps directly on the woodblock, based on a painting by Nicolas Poussin. This was cut in the block by John Byfield (object 11). All these materials are included in our reproductions.

Twenty of Blake's preliminary drawings, all executed in monochrome wash, were sold at auction from the Linnell collection in 1918. These are now widely dispersed; seven are untraced and one drawing in the group (Butlin 769.4) was not engraved. The present ownership of each drawing is given in the Editors' Notes for the relevant wood engravings (objects 6-10). Blake's original woodblocks are in the British Museum.

Although small in size and almost rejected by the man who commissioned them, Blake's Virgil wood engravings have been among his most influential works. The young artists who gathered around Blake in his final years, including Samuel Palmer, George Richmond, and Edward Calvert, were deeply inspired by the Virgil engravings. Palmer called them "visions of little dells, and nooks, and corners of Paradise"—an encomium that ignores the darker implications of some designs. Several twentieth-century British artists, including Graham Sutherland, were also influenced by Blake's wood engravings.