Blake's Drawings for the Book of Enoch

Allan R. Brown

The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 77, No. 450. (Sep., 1940), pp. 80-81+83-85.

Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0951-0788%28194009%2977%3A450%3C80%3ABDFTBO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-J

The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs is currently published by The Burlington Magazine Publications, Ltd..

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at
http://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained
prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in
the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at
http://www.jstor.org/journals/bmpl.html.

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.

JSTOR is an independent not-for-profit organization dedicated to and preserving a digital archive of scholarly journals. For
more information regarding JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

http://www.jstor.org
Wed Jun 6 11:23:16 2007
ReJections on Classicism and Romanticzsm-III
a new technique supplemented the new themes in
his drive towards a democratization of art :
Gtricault was the first great painter to make a
regular use of lithographs-the technique of which
he much improved-and in SO doing he provided
the less well-to-do with the products of his art.10
o
poqitions of ~ e ~is ai picture
~
-
important fGrerunner of these unheroic nlilitary
~by N.
~ A.l T~~~~~(1755-1830)
~
which shows the prench army-Tvi,hout r\japoleon-crossing
~ ; pass in~ 1808 in ~a heavy dsnow-storm~ and mist
(Versailles). Taunay himself comes from the realistic genre painting
tradition of the eighteenth century.
BLAKE'S DRAWINGS FOR THE BOOK
OF ENOCH BY ALLAN K. BROWN
MONGST the material received by
John Linnell from William Blake and
sold at the dispersal of the Linnell
collection a t Christie's in 1918, were
,five pencil drawings for the Book of
En0ch.l The drawings are on folio sheets, two of
which are watermarked W. ELGAR 1796. The
others are without dated watermark. Two of the
sheets are endorsed a t the top from the Book of Enoch,
two are endorsed Book of Enoch, and one, B of Enoch.
Geoffrey Keynes in his bibliography, while noting
that these may have been illustrations to the
pseudepigraphical Book of Enoch, lists the series under
the head of Works Lost or Conjectural, and states
that the indications on the designs suggest that the
Book of Enoch may have been a projected work of
Blake's. Keynes admits that such a work is not
referred to elsewhere, but he is apparently influenced
in his opinion by the notation on the side of one
of the sheets, No. 26 next at p. 43. This notation,
like the other endorsements, is not in Blake's hand-
writing. I n any event, the fidelity of the designs
to the text of the early work, in minute particulars
which cannot be accidental, shows that they are
not illustrations of a n original work by Blake.
The drawings are preliminary sketches instinct
with all the spontaneity of primary artistic con-
ceptions. While strikingly characteristic of Blake
both in drawing and meaning, they are quite free
from the mannerisms which sometimes mar the
effect of Blake's work for those weaker brethren
whose power of imagination is darkened by memory
of nature, if we may use the phraseology of the
Descriptive Catalogue. Aside from their beauty and
vigour, however, the drawings have a distinct
historical interest as exhibiting the power, range
and continuity of Blake's mental processes during
the latter part of his life. They deserve closer
scrutiny than they have yet received.
While the drawings -- are undated, there is little
I The) appear as IVO. 129 of the uncoloured works in the annotated
lists of Blake's paintings, drawings and engravlnys compiled by
William Michael Rossetti for Gilchrist's Life of Il'zlliam Blak?
Being well-off himself at this time, he did not
attempt to sell pictures to individual patrons and
could in this way keep his artistic independence.
- lo His friendship with the well-known painter and lithographer
Charlet, who glorified the Sapoleonic army, dates from this period.
Charlet's lithographs contributed greatly to the popularisation of
the Napoleonic legend-that important weapon in the hands of the
liberal opposi!ion. Gtricault's closest friend, the painter Horace
\'erne:, the son of his first master, was an ardent supporter of he
opposition and a n admirer of Napoleon ; his large circle, to which
~ GCricault
~ belonged,
~ was ~ entirely composed
~ of
~ liberals and of
( TObbe continued)
difficulty in determining the period to which they
should be assigned. The Book of Enoch, although
exercising an important influence upon the writings
of the New Testament, early fell into disuse, and was
lost to western Christianity until an Ethiopic manu-
script was brought back from Abyssinia in 1773 by
James Bruce, the Scottish explorer. It seems little
likely that Blake could have had any knowledge
of the contents of the book until the year 182I when
the first English translation was published.
The Enoch drawings therefore must have been
produced between 1821, when Blake was in his
sixty-fifth year, and 1827, when he died. Probably
they belong to the end of the period, for until 1825
Blake was occupied with the engraving of his
inventions to the Book of Job, that tremendous epic
into which he was able to put so much of his own
theology. Then came the series of Dante illus-
trations, which, with all their overwhelming power,
failed to give Blake the same opportunity for the
promulgation of his own gospel. I t is at this time
that we might expect to find him searching about
for other possible vehicles for his spiritual teaching.
I n fact, the drawings for Genesis, a series somewhat
similar in character to the Enoch drawings, are
dated 1827.
From Blake's Descriptive Catalogue it appears that
earlier in life he had been sufficiently interested in
the first published translation of the Bhagauad Gita
into English to embody the incident in an ideal
design. Small wonder then that the translation of
the Book of Enoch attracted the attention of the close
Bible student. Enoch is cited by name and quoted
in the epistle of Jude, and we know that Blake had
studied that epistle, from his water-colour drawing
of Satan and the Archangel lZlichael contending for the
Body of Moses, an incident recorded only in
Jude.
The Book of Enoch is a curious collection of diverse
materials, including even a section which attempts
to deal scientifically with the laws of the heavenly
bodies. The book opens with the story of the fall
THE DESCENT OF THE ANGELS T O A DAUGHTER OF MAN. BY WILLIAM BLAKE. PENCIL DRAWING. (PRIVATE
COLLECTION, AMERICA)

PLATE I. BLAKE'S DRAWINGS FOR THE BOOK O F EJVOCH


of the angels and their intercourse with the daughters
of men and of Enoch's unsuccessful intercession for
them before God. Then vision follows vision. The
bounds of She01 are traversed by Enoch and his
angel guide. Famous sinners are seen in torment.
God, the Lord of Spirits, and His Elect, the Son of
Man, are seen and described in words of considerable
beauty and poetic feeling. There is a vision of the
last judgment. Finally the history of the Jews is
narrated in symbolic form. The likeness of parts
of this work to the Dante epic in which Blake was
so engrossed is obvious and has been heretofore
pointed out. Blake's own Marriage of Heaven and
Hell affords perhaps an even closer analogy. The
whole book was eminently fitted to attract Blake's
pencil as soon as its translation made it available
to him.
Rossetti says that the Enoch drawings are " as
intangible for description as the average of the
designs of the Prophetic Books. A miscellany of naked
figures in conditions that one does not accurately
comprehend." We must conclude that Rossetti
was not familiar with the Book of Enoch, for the draw-
ings are in fact not at all obscure. The designs for
Blake's Prophetic Books are not infrequently obscure
because they do not follow the text but amplify and
interpret it, sometimes even presenting new ideas
only indirectly connected with the theme of the
prophecy. The Enoch drawings on the other hand
are like the Dante set in their careful adherence to
the text which they illustrate.
The first three designs illustrate the episode of
the fall of the angels and represent three stages in
that story of progressive degeneration.
And it came to pass in the days when the children
of men had multiplied that there were born unto
them beautiful and comely daughters. And the
angels, the children of heaven, saw and lusted after
them, and said to one another, " Come, let us choose
wives for ourselves from among the daughters of
man and beget us children." And they were in
all two hundred ; who descended and took unto
themselves wives, and each chose for himself one ;
and they began to go in unto them and to defile
themselves with them, and they taught them charms
and enchantments and the cutting of roots, and
made them acquainted with plants, and revealed
to them all kinds of sin.
And they became pregnant and bare great giants,
whose height was three thousand ells. And these
consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when
men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned
against them and devoured mankind. And they
began to sin against birds and beasts and reptiles
and fish, and to devour one another's flesh and
drink the blood.
And there arose much godlessness, and they
committed fornication and were led astray and
became corrupt in all their ways. And the whole
earth was filled with blood and unrighteousness.
And the women also of the angels who went astray
became sirens.
Blake's Drawings for the Book of Eno~h
I n the first drawing [PLATEI] the composition
centres about the nude figure of one of the " beautiful
and comely " daughters of men. Two angels
descend towards her. By a bold and strikingly
effective arrangement the angels are portrayed not
only anthropomorphically but also in the guise of
stars with phallic attributes. This is to accord with
the symbolism of a later vision of Enoch where,
with somewhat disconcerting bluntness, they are so
represented. I t is not to be believed that Blake
conceived this notion independently. He could only
have taken it from the Book of Enoch.
I n the second picture [PLATE 11, A] the woman
again occupies the centre of the composition. An
angel, descending with the rushing sweep which
Blake could depict so masterfully, whispers in her
ear the secrets of sin, particularly root-cutting and
enchantments with herbs and plants, if we may
judge by the surrounding leaves and flowers and
branches. I n the background at either side of the
woman, and very striking features of the com-
position, are two of the giant children. They are
not the only fruit of sin, however, for the attitude
of the woman has clearly become acquiescent, while
the body of the angel has begun to develop that
scaly covering with which Blake so often invests the
evil genius.
I n the third drawing [PLATE 11, B] the moral
de'bacle is complete. The woman has become a
siren, or as we should perhaps say, vampire.
Wearing the scales of sin, she rises exultant from
the prone body of a man, while an innocent sister,
balancing the composition, stands at his feet, frozen
with grief and horror.
The fourth design [PLATE11, C] portrays Enoch
standing with his angel guide before the throne of
the Great Glory, where he has come to plead for
forgiveness for the fallen angels.
And I looked and saw a lofty throne : its appear-
ance was as crystal, and the wheels thereof as the
shining sun. From underneath the throne came
streams of flaming fire so that I could not look
thereon. And the Great Glory sat thereon, and
His raiment shone more brightly than the sun and
was whiter than any snow. None of the angels
could enter and behold His face by reason of the
magnificence and glory, and no flesh could behold
Him. The flaming fire was round about Him,
and a great fire stood before Him, and none could
draw nigh Him : ten thousand time ten thousand
stood before Him, yet needed He no counsellor.
And the most holy ones who were nigh to Him
did not leave by night nor depart from Him. And
until then I had been prostrate on my face,
trembling : and the Lord called me with His own
mouth and said to me : " Come hither, Enoch,
and hear My word." And one of the holy ones
came to me and made me rise and approach the
door : and I bowed my head downwards.
The fifth design [PLATE11,D] portrays the Messiah,
called in Enoch the Son of Man, the Elect. He is
shown surrounded by his four attendant spirits,
Blake's Drawings for the Book of Enoch
counterparts of the four archangels of the presence
of God. This drawing might well serve as a
frontispiece for the entire work, for the Messiah
doctrine is the most prominent and important
feature of the book and Blake has grasped its full
significance. The mingled majesty and tenderness
of the figure make it by far the most successful of
Blake's attempts a t the portrayal of the Christ.
And I asked the angel who went with me and
who showed me all the hidden things, concerning
that Son of Man, who he was and whence he was
and why he went with the Head of Days. And
he answered and said unto me :
This is the Son of Man who hath righteousness,
with whom dwelleth righteousness, who revealeth
all the treasures of that which is hidden ; because
the Lord of Spirits hath chosen him, and whose
lot hath pre-eminence before the Lord of Spirits
forever.
For he is mighty in all the secrets of righteousness,
and unrighteousness shall disappear as a shadow
and have no continuance. Because the Elect One
standeth before the Lord of Spirits, and his glory
is forever and ever, and his might unto all gener-
ations. And in him dwells the spirit of wisdom,
and the spirit which gives insight, and the spirit
of understanding and might, and the spirit of
those who have fallen asleep in righteousness.
And he shall judge the secret things, and none shall
be able to utter a lying word before him ; for he
is the Elect One before the Lord of Spirits according
to His good pleasure.
We have seen how closely Blake adhered in these
illustrations to the text of the Book of Enoch. But
the man of four-fold vision was not satisfied with
this. Just as he was able in the first design to
depict both the literal and symbolic aspects of the
descent of the angels, so also he made all the designs
a vehicle for the expression of his own doctrines.
I n the first three designs is represented the evil
domination of the Female Will, personified in his
system as Vala. By this he meant material beauty,
carnal love, leading to the sleep of materialism,
spiritual death. This evil influence he described
in the Prophecy of Europe, where Enitharmon, the
Emanation of Los, is able, by appeal to the physical
attractions, to sleep (that is, maintain the ascendancy
of materialism) for 1800 years even after the birth
of Christ or Orc. The doctrine is further expressed
in Jerusalem, page 34, lines 25-35 :
What may Man be ? who can tell ! but what
may Woman be ?
To have power over Man from Cradle to corruptible
Grave.
There is a Throne in every Man, it is the Throne
of God.
This Woman has claim'd as her own, and Man is
no more :
Albion is the Tabernacle of Vala and her Temple,
And not the Tabernacle and Temple of the Most
High.
0 Albion, why wilt thou Create a Female Will
To hide the most evident God in a secret covert, even
In the shadows of a Woman and a secluded Holy
Place,
That we may pry after him as after a stolen treasure,
Hidden among the Dead and mured up from the
paths of life ?
I n these designs the woman represents Vala.
The mingled desire and distress upon her face in
the first design exactly express Vala's lament in
Jerusalem, page 33, lines 45-48 :
Wherefor did I loving create love, which never yet
Immingled God and Man, when thou and I hid
the Divine Vision
In clouds of secret gloom which, behold, involve
me round about !
Know me now, Albion : look upon me : I alone
am beauty.
I t is significant that the posture of the woman in
this design is a combination of the attitudes of the
two central figures in design gg of the Dante series.
That design, which must have been produced at
about the same time, represents The Queen of Heaven
Enthroned. The Virgin Mary is pictured naked
holding a mirror and a fleur-de-lis on a staff like
a sceptre or thyrsus. The Virgin with Blake again
and again represents the evil Female Will, the
source of the carnal part of Christ.
I n the second design the leaves and branches
represent the vegetable life, which is Blake's term
for the life of the senses. The giant children, their
hair flames of passion, suggest the Book of Los,
lines 25-26 :
And Wantoness of his own true love
Begot a giant race.
I n the third design Vala, triumphant, is covered
with scales. She is thus represented in Vala, Night II ;
" she grew a scaled serpent,'' " Till she became a
dragon, winged, bright, poisonous." The tree with
Blake represents error. Destruction is now complete.
Man sleeps the sleep of spiritual death at the foot
of the tree. I n the same way Eve sleeps at the
foot of the cross in the Paradise Lost series. The
second woman in this design represents Jerusalem,
the Emanation of Albion, the tender part of his
nature from which man by the fall became separated.
Jehovah, the God of punishment, was always
abhorrent to Blake. This was Satan. His god
was Jesus, the God of forgiveness. Therefore the
features of the Almighty in the fourth design have
something sinister. Blake could have pleaded the
cause of the fallen angels better than Enoch did.
I n the last design the four spirits represent the
fourfold nature of man-humanity, spectre, eman-
ation and shadow. This is the basis of Blake's
doctrine of man. The design perfectly illustrates
Vala, Night I, lines 4-6.
Four Mighty Ones are in every Man : a perfect
Unity
Can not exist but from the Universal Brotherhood
of Eden,
The Universal Man, to Whom be glory evermore.
Amen.
A-AN ANGEL TEACHING THE SECRETS OF SIN. BY WILLIAM B-THE DAUGHTER OF MAN BECOME A SIREJV. B y
BLAKE. DRAWING. COLLECTION~ WILLIAM BLAKE. PENCIL DRAWING. (PRIVATE COL-
AMERICA) LECTION, AMERICA)

C-ENOCH WITH AN ANGEL BEFORE THE GREAT GLORY. BY D-THE SON OF MAN. BY WILLIAM BLAKE. PENCIL
WILLIAM BLAKE. PENCIL DRAWING. (PRIVATE COLLEC- DRAWING. (PRIVATE COLLECTION, AMERICA)
TION, AMERICA)

PLATE 11. BLAKE'S DRAWINGS FOR THE BOOK O F E M C H