Sketch for "The Thought of Death alone, the Fear Destroys" (c. 1795): Art, History and Details

Sketch for "The Thought of Death alone, the Fear Destroys" (c. 1795) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is William Blake (British, 1757–1827).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

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.

Object facts

• Title: Sketch for "The Thought of Death alone, the Fear Destroys"
• Date: c. 1795
• Creator attribution: William Blake (British, 1757–1827)
• Culture: England, 18th century
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: graphite on paper
• Dimensions: Sheet: 17 x 30.8 cm (6 11/16 x 12 1/8 in.)
• Collection: DR - British
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 1932.318

Collection credit

Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.