In 1821 Blake removed to 3 Fountain Court, Strand, where he had the
plainest of neutral rooms, not without value as a background for his
visions. Here relief was at hand, but he knew it not. Harassed by poverty,
he must raise money somehow. His collection of engravings, which had
steadily grown since the day that he had endowed his bride with it as his
sole treasure, was marketable, and with as little fuss as need be he sold
it to Messrs Colnaghi and Company. It was the final self-stripping.
Humbled and disciplined by the inexorable years, having surrendered
himself and his last precious possession, he was ready to bring forth the
rich fruit of his mature genius. His old friend and patron Butts gave him
a commission to paint twenty-one water-colour designs illustrating the
Book of Job. He was allowed to show them, and they drew forth from his
friend Linnell a further commission to execute and engrave a duplicate
set, with the written agreement that he should receive £100 for the
designs and copyright and another £100 out of the profits. There were no
profits forthcoming; but Linnell paid him in instalments £50 besides the
first £100. We may note here that the Royal Academy in 1822 made him a
grant of £25. And so, at last, Blake had sufficient means to enable him to
devote himself to his joyous work without the gnawing distraction of
poverty and want.
There is no book in the world better suited for Blake's genius than the
Book of Job. It has been in itself a complete Bible to the mystic in all
ages. In it is given a marvellous description in dramatic form of that
mysterious and awful self-stripping which the saint experiences after his
conversion and not before. It is an expansion of the text that even here
death is the gate of life. The same truth is insisted on by all the
prophets, especially by the prophets to the nations like Ezekiel and
Jonah; by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ; by the
personal experience of St Paul; and recently by Hegel, till it has become
a commonplace both in religion and philosophy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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