Who painted Job and His Daughters?

Job and His Daughters was painted by William Blake in 1799/1800.

Where can I see Job and His Daughters?

Job and His Daughters is held by National Gallery of Art.

What movement is Job and His Daughters?

Job and His Daughters is associated with Romanticism.

Can I buy a print of Job and His Daughters?

Museum-quality prints of Job and His Daughters are available made-to-order from Artifact World Gallery.

Artwork

Job and His Daughters

William Blake , 1800

Job and His Daughters is a tempera painting by the Romanticist artist William Blake. It dates from 1800 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.

About this work

Subject & Meaning

Blake renders Job seated centrally in a state of quiet contemplation or blessing, while his daughters attend him with gestures of care and reverence.

The painting depicts the biblical patriarch Job surrounded by his three daughters, Jemimah, Keziah, and Keren-happuch, after his restoration to health and prosperity, a scene drawn from the Book of Job (42:13-15). Blake renders Job seated centrally in a state of quiet contemplation or blessing, while his daughters attend him with gestures of care and reverence. Their youthful presence and tender postures underscore themes of familial renewal and divine recompense following suffering.

The luminous treatment of the figures and the restrained palette emphasize a mood of serene restoration aligned with Blake's interpretation of Job's reconciliation with God's providence.

Technique & Style

Job and His Daughters is executed in pen and tempera on canvas, a combination that reflects William Blake's experimental approach to his biblical subjects. Its relatively small scale, measuring 27.3 by 38.4 centimetres, is characteristic of the intimate format Blake favoured for the tempera paintings he produced for his patron Thomas Butts. The tempera medium, applied with pen work, allowed Blake to achieve the precise linear definition and luminous colour typical of his graphic sensibility, distinguishing the work from conventional oil painting of the period and aligning it with the broader series of biblical illustrations he created for Butts.

History & Provenance

William Blake painted Job and His Daughters in 1800 as part of a series of biblical illustrations commissioned by Thomas Butts. The work passed to Thomas Butts, Jr. in 1853, then to J.C. Strange, to William Bell Scott by 1876, and subsequently to Bernard Quaritch, Charles Eliot Norton, Gabriel Wells, George C. Smith, Jr., and Rosenbach & Co. before being acquired for Lessing J. Rosenwald in 1938 at a Parke-Bernet sale in New York. Rosenwald gave the painting to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in 1943, where it has remained since.

Legacy

The painting contributed to Romantic visual interpretations of biblical narrative and to later British religious art through Blake's emotional intensity and symbolic language. It remained in private collections before entering the National Gallery of Art in 1943.

Overview

Created in 1800, Job and His Daughters is a modestly sized work executed in pen and tempera on canvas. The composition presents an elderly, bearded figure seated on a couch, arms outstretched, flanked by two women and a younger girl positioned before him. Warm, muted tones dominate the scene, lending it an intimate, domestic atmosphere.

Context

Job and His Daughters belongs to the religious genre that Blake frequently explored, alongside his poetry and illuminated books. The piece reflects the broader Romantic preoccupation with individual experience, inner feeling, and the use of biblical themes to probe universal human conditions. Its symbolic density aligns with Blake’s simultaneous pursuits in literature and visual art.