Colinet's Journey: Milestone Marked LXII Miles to London, from The Pastorals of Virgil

Colinet's Journey: Milestone Marked LXII Miles to London, from The Pastorals of Virgil is a seminal wood engraving created by the English artist William Blake in 1821. This small, yet intensely detailed, image is one of seventeen prints Blake executed for a new edition of Robert John Thornton's translation of Virgil's Eclogues. The illustrations, appearing just six years before Blake’s death, represent a unique late phase of the artist's career, focusing on deeply rooted pastoral themes and challenging traditional concepts of relief printing prevalent during the early 19th century.

The composition depicts a simple narrative scene central to the journey of the character Colinet, focusing on a road marker indicating the distance to the capital city. Blake, known for his distinctive visionary style, reduced the landscape to essential, symbolic forms. Unlike the larger, more polished prints typical of the period, Blake’s wood engravings possess a raw, archaic power, emphasizing deep contrasts of light and shadow achieved through precise cutting into the block. This deliberate crudeness was initially criticized by contemporaries but is now celebrated as a radical departure in 19th-century English printmaking, marking him as a pivotal figure in the history of prints.

The work is classified as a print, executed on off-white wove paper. Blake’s interpretation of classical literature through the lens of early Romantic England profoundly influenced subsequent generations of artists. This historically significant piece is held in the extensive collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. As an important 19th-century artwork that often resides within the public domain, high-quality reproductions and scholarly resources related to Blake's extraordinary engravings are increasingly accessible globally.