Job Rebuked by His Friends

"Job Rebuked by His Friends" is a powerful engraving created by the visionary British artist William Blake in 1825. This work, executed on thin paper, belongs to Blake's final great series, a portfolio of twenty-one illustrations based on the Old Testament Book of Job. Commissioned late in the artist’s life, the series represents the culmination of Blake's technical skill in the challenging medium of engraving. Created during the period of 1801 to 1825, this piece firmly sits within the late Romantic era, reflecting the prevailing cultural interest in intense spirituality, sublime drama, and complex moral narratives typical of the early 19th century.

The central narrative depicts Job, seated and suffering, being harshly confronted by his three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, who accuse him of secret sin as the cause of his sudden, agonizing trials. Blake meticulously uses the expressive capabilities of the engraving medium to convey deep emotional and spiritual distress. The figures are rendered with precise, linear contours and heavily shaded drapery, giving the scene a sense of dramatic weight and oppressive judgment. Blake’s masterful command of light and shadow, characteristic of his work in prints, emphasizes Job's physical isolation and profound spiritual conflict against a dark, cosmic background.

As part of a larger, unified portfolio, this work exemplifies Blake’s unique synthesis of poetic text and visual imagery, making the Job Rebuked by His Friends series one of the pinnacles of British graphic art. While the original physical engravings require careful preservation, high-quality images of these significant prints are often made available to scholars and the public, including through resources that list artworks in the public domain. This particular impression of the engraving is held in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Art, where it serves as a critical example of Blake’s late career output.