William Blake’s Jerusalem: The Emanation of The Giant Albion

William Blake’s Jerusalem: The Emanation of The Giant Albion

Jerusalem: The Emanation of The Giant Albion is the last prophetic epic poem by William Blake. The illustrated poem portrays the fall and salvation of Albion, the universal human. It is divided into four chapters addressing the Public, the Jews, the Deists, and the Christians. Blake created the illustrated poem by etching in relief on copperplates, that were then used to print several versions or copies of Jerusalem. This specific copy of Jerusalem is only one of two current color copies of Jerusalem, and once belonged to the collection of Lt. Colonel William Stirling of Keir. Jerusalem has now come to reside in the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven.

The facsimile is made up of four paperback fascicles, each with 25 plates. A fifth fascicle includes an introduction discussing the creation of the facsimile by the William Blake Trust. The process took over two years to complete with painstaking reproductions of collotype to mimic the copperplates of Blake’s original versions. The facsimile prints were then painted with watercolors by hand with stenciling to reproduce the watercolor effects as closely as possible to the originals.

Original MS: William Blake
Facsimile: William Blake Trust, Daniel Jacoumet et cie, Paris

Facsimile: UNT Special Collections Library, Call Number: PR4144 .J4 1951
Original: New Haven, Yale Center for British Art, Copy E, c. 1821

Trianon Press for the William Blake Trust, London

Facsimile: 1951
Original: c. 1821

NA

Cobham, Surrey: Trianon Press

William Blake's water-colour designs for the poems of Thomas Gray

100 leaves of plates: colored illustrations; 35 cm

English

19th century poem of illustrated printing

Hand painted replication of illustrated printing

England, Illustrated Printing, c. 1821

Prepared by Tania Kolarik