Thenot Remonstrates with Colinet, from The Pastorals of Virgil

Thenot Remonstrates with Colinet, from The Pastorals of Virgil by William Blake English, 1757-1827, is a delicate wood engraving executed in 1821. This miniature yet monumental work is part of a celebrated series of illustrations created late in the artist’s life for an edition of Dr. Robert John Thornton’s school text of The Pastorals of Virgil. These distinctive, densely worked prints, created toward the end of Blake's career, mark a significant moment in the history of English book illustration, blending classical poetic text with the artist's highly specific visionary aesthetic.

The technique employed here, wood engraving on off-white wove paper, allowed Blake to achieve fine detail and stark contrast, despite the necessity of working at a reduced scale. Unlike traditional copperplate engraving, wood engraving requires the artist to work directly into the end-grain of the block, enabling a robust black-and-white visual language. The piece depicts the dialogue between the older shepherd Thenot and the melancholic, lovelorn shepherd Colinet, drawing directly from the tradition established by Virgil. Blake avoids sentimental pastoral idealism, instead presenting a highly stylized and somewhat angular interpretation of the rural scene, which emphasizes the emotional core of the spiritual instruction offered by Thenot.

Created in England during the height of the Romantic era, this image captures Blake's enduring fascination with myth, spiritual narrative, and classical literature. While many of the artist’s illustrations were criticized by contemporaries for their perceived crudeness, today they are recognized as revolutionary designs that pushed the boundaries of printmaking. The work is held in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, where it serves as a prime example of the graphic and visionary output of one of England’s most important Romantic figures. For researchers and enthusiasts of early modern prints, high-resolution images of this piece, potentially falling under public domain rights depending on usage, are invaluable resources for studying the artist’s masterful command of the medium.