Cleveland Museum of Art

Sketch for "The Thought of Death alone, the Fear Destroys"

William Blake

Date

c. 1795

Medium

graphite on paper

Culture

England, 18th century

Department

Drawings

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This sketch of a shepherd sleeping with his dog at the edge of a precipice relates to one of the nearly 550 watercolors that William Blake created for the 1797 edition of Edward Young’s The Complaint, and the Consolation; or, Night Thoughts , a long poem about death and salvation originally published in 1742–45 . Blake worked extensively with books as an author and illustrator, and also engraved the work of others for publication. Night Thoughts was one of his most ambitious commercial projects. Unfortunately, only one of the four planned volumes was ever produced, since Richard Edwards, who had commissioned the work, closed his publishing business.

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