Menalcus Watching Women Dance, from Thornton's "Pastorals of Virgil"

Menalcus Watching Women Dance, from Thornton's "Pastorals of Virgil" by William Blake is a crucial example of the artist's late style in printmaking. Created in 1821, this piece is one of Blake’s seventeen wood engravings produced for Dr. Robert John Thornton’s illustrated school edition of the Roman poet Virgil’s Eclogues. This commission, though initially met with confusion by contemporaries used to more conventional illustrations, stands today as a landmark of 19th-century British prints and a profound expression of the Romantic sensibility.

Blake utilizes the demanding medium of wood engraving with characteristic intensity. Unlike the smooth, classical illustrations typical of the period, Blake’s composition features rough, expressive lines and deep shadow, lending the small-scale image a feeling of powerful, untamed energy. The technique emphasizes the dramatic undercurrents inherent in the pastoral scene, transforming a simple vignette into a deeply resonant image.

The subject illustrates a specific moment from the text, focusing on the male figure, Menalcus, observing the communal activity of women dancing in a rural setting. Blake imbues the act of observation and the rustic celebration of the women with a sense of stark drama and poetic vision. These iconic images influenced subsequent generations of British artists, particularly the Pre-Raphaelites. Because of their historical significance and age, high-resolution prints of this wood engraving are often made accessible through public domain initiatives, allowing scholars and enthusiasts worldwide to study Blake’s innovative use of the printing block. This impression of Menalcus Watching Women Dance is held in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.