Thenot and Colinet Eat Their Evening Meal, from Thornton's "Pastorals of Virgil"

Thenot and Colinet Eat Their Evening Meal, from Thornton's "Pastorals of Virgil" is a powerful wood engraving created by the visionary artist William Blake in 1821. This work is one of twenty illustrations Blake provided for the third edition of Dr. Robert John Thornton's translation of Virgil's Eclogues, a project commissioned late in Blake's life. These highly compressed and dramatically stylized prints are often considered among Blake’s most innovative graphic works, employing a rougher, almost primitive cutting style that intentionally defied the refined engraving standards of the early nineteenth century. The illustrations were initially poorly received by critics, who felt Blake’s style was clumsy, but they have since been recognized as masterpieces of early modern wood engraving.

The illustration depicts a quiet moment between the two main figures, identified as Thenot and Colinet, as they share their evening meal in a rustic, shadowed landscape. Blake strips the scene down to its essential elements, emphasizing the simple, enduring nature of the pastoral life championed by Virgil. The focused depiction of the men and women at supper contrasts starkly with the surrounding darkness, utilizing the inherent visual limitations of the wood block medium to achieve dramatic effect. Blake renders the figures with a powerful, almost classical simplicity, giving them a monumental presence despite the miniature scale of the final piece.

Measuring only a few inches square, this work demonstrates Blake's lifelong commitment to spiritual and symbolic expression, even within the constraints of commercial book illustration. This impression of the wood engraving currently resides in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met). Due to the age and historical significance of the artwork, high-resolution images of these famous prints are often available through the public domain for scholarly study and appreciation.