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The serpent caressing Eve

William Blake

1808

From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum

Romanticism Early 19th Century Nude

Dominant colour

The serpent caressing Eve is a 1808 by William Blake, a Romanticism work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.

Who painted this?: William Blake
When & what style?: 1808 · Romanticism
Where can I see it?: Victoria and Albert Museum

About this work

This drawing shows a nude woman standing in a forest, with a serpent wrapped around her body. The woman's face is turned to the side, and her hair is loose. The serpent's head is near her face, and its body is coiled around her waist and legs. The drawing is done in a simple, expressive style, with bold lines and minimal detail. The forest background is suggested by a few trees and some foliage. The drawing is a good example of the Romanticism movement, which emphasized emotion and imagination. For more information on this style, check out the Romanticism movement.

The story of this work

Overview

A pencil drawing by William Blake from 1808 depicts a serpent coiled around Eve in a caressing manner. On the reverse side, a faint sketch shows a figure stretched on a St. Andrew’s Cross. The work may have served as a preliminary study for Blake’s *The Temptation of Eve*, now in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. It corresponds to an entry noted by Dante Gabriel Rossetti in his catalog.

Read the full account in the museum source.