The Pastorals of Virgil, Eclogue I: The Blasted Tree

The Pastorals of Virgil, Eclogue I: The Blasted Tree is a profound wood engraving created by William Blake in 1821. This influential print originated in the United Kingdom and exemplifies the artist's unique approach to book illustration late in his career. Blake undertook this series of seventeen wood engravings for Dr. Robert Thornton’s school edition of Virgil’s Eclogues. Though minute in scale, these highly influential prints marked a pivotal moment in the history of English printmaking, showcasing Blake’s highly expressive and somewhat rough-hewn technique, which diverged sharply from the finer copperplate work common among his contemporaries.

The subject matter relates to Virgil's first Eclogue, which concerns the plight of the displaced shepherd Meliboeus amidst war and upheaval. In The Blasted Tree, Blake utilizes the central motif of the destroyed tree to convey themes of destruction, fate, or sudden, violent change within the ostensibly tranquil pastoral setting. The powerful visual impact derives from Blake’s distinctive graphic style, characterized by dense black lines and stark tonal contrasts, lending a visionary intensity to the classical source material. While many of the artist’s most famous illuminated books utilized relief etching, his shift to wood engraving for this series provided an elemental quality to the imagery. This important example of Blake's printmaking legacy is held in the permanent collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.