Urizen

1794

Monotype, with pen and brown and gray inks and watercolor, on cream wove paper

17 × 12.7 cm (6.7 × 5 in)

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In the collection of Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago · as of July 2026

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FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

Although produced as an independent work, this unique hand-colored print is based on one of Blake’s plates from The Book of Urizen (published 1794), among the artist’s most complex printed books. In it, Blake’s invented mythology describes Urizen as “Creator of Men,” a god of immense power who invented a repressive web of laws and religion based on reason. For Blake, Urizen’s laws limited energy and crushed the imagination. Here, Blake depicts Urizen as a bearded old man crouching beneath a large rock, adhering closely to the following verses from The Book of Urizen : “And a roof, vast petrific around, / On all sides He fram’d: like a womb.”

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