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Creator:
Print made by William Blake, 1757–1827
Title:

Jerusalem, Plate 97, "Awake! Awake Jerusalem...."

Additional Title(s):

Los with the Sun

Part Of:

Collective Title: Jerusalem: The Emanation of The Giant Albion, Bentley Copy E

Date:
1804 to 1820
Medium:
Relief etching printed in orange ink, with watercolor, pen and black ink, and gold on moderately thick, smooth, cream wove paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 13 1/2 x 10 3/8 inches (34.3 x 26.4 cm), Plate: 8 1/4 x 5 7/8 inches (21 x 15 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1992.8.1(97)
Classification:
Prints
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:
lantern | light | literary theme | men | moon | night | nudes | religious and mythological subject | sky | sphere | star | stones | sun | text
Access:
Accessible by appointment in the Study Room [Request]
Note: The Study Room is open by appointment. Please visit the Study Room page on our website for more details.
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:3532
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William Blake insisted that Jerusalem, his final prophetic book, was divinely inspired. Of the five copies he printed in his lifetime, only the edition now at the Yale Center for British Art was colored. Blake described his narrative as a “Sublime Allegory,” which he divided into four chapters that correspond to spiritual stages of human history, addressed “To the Public,” “To the Jews,” “To the Deists,” and “To the Christians.” The text has been linked to biblical precedents, particularly the Book of Revelation, as it begins after a universal fall and ends with redemption. However, Jerusalem is not a straightforward expression of Christian devotion. The illuminated text offers a critique of organized religion at a moment of spiritual uncertainty across Europe. Blake called for radical religious reform by liberating faith from the corruption and dogmatism of institutional churches and reimagining it in modern terms.

Gallery label for the Critique of Reason: Romantic Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2015-03-06 - 2015-07-26)

William Blake: Visionary (The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2023-10-17 - 2024-01-14) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

The Critique of Reason : Romantic Art, 1760–1860 (Yale University Art Gallery, 2015-03-06 - 2015-07-26) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

William Blake (Tate Britain, 2000-11-02 - 2001-02-04) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

The Human Form Divine - William Blake from the Paul Mellon Collection (Yale Center for British Art, 1997-04-02 - 1997-07-06) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

William Blake - His Art & Times (Art Gallery of Ontario, 1982-12-03 - 1983-02-06) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

William Blake - His Art & Times (Yale Center for British Art, 1982-09-15 - 1982-11-14) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Denise Gigante, Life, organic form and Romanticism , Yale University Press, New Haven, 2009, between p. 114 and p. 115, pp. 150-51, Pl. III. 13, PR575.L54 G54 2009 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Peter Otto, Multiplying worlds, romanticism, modernity, and the emergence of virtual reality , Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2011, pp. 208-14, fig. 8.9, PN769 R7 O77 2011 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Holly Shaffer, Grafted arts : art making and taking in the struggle for western India : 1760-1910, The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, New Haven, CT, p. 209, fig. 131, N72.P6 S53 2022+ (YCBA) [YCBA]

Colin Trodd, The Energy Man: Blake, Nietzscheanism and Cultural Criticism in Britain, 1890-1920, Visual Culture in Britain, 19, Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot, England, p. 296, N6761 V57 (LC) (YCBA) [YCBA]

William Blake : Visionary, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, p. 154, pl. 111, NJ18.B57 A12 2020 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]


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