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Songs of Innocence and of Experience: The Tyger

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Artist/Creator (1)	Blake, William, 1757-1827
Artist/Creator (1).Nationality	British
Title/Caption	Songs of Innocence and of Experience: The Tyger
Date of Work	ca. 1825
Notes	The Tyger, arguably Blake's best-known verse, which questions a God who could create such a brutal beast, comes from the Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Blake originally produced this small, richly illustrated collection of short lyric verses as two separate books, Songs of Innocence (1789) and Songs of Experience (1794), then combined them into a single volume (1794). Although its small, simple, colorful format recalls a children's book, its message is sophisticated and complex. Innocence and Experience contrast opposite states of human existence, before and after the Fall. The pastoral poems in Innocence express religious faith and acceptance, and exhibit fine detail and flowing lines; the bardic verses in Experience, by contrast, convey disillusionment and anger, and employ bolder outlines. Published during the height of the Terror, the French Revolution left its mark on the second book. Blake produced only twenty-four copies of the combined volume; this page comes from one of the last, prepared for the painter and printmaker Edward Calvert (1799-1883) in about 1825. Its deep, saturated hues and distinctive ornamental borders (found on only one other copy) contrast with the lighter, paler colors of editions printed three decades earlier. The book remained in Calvert's family until the late nineteenth century; in 1917, it became the first work purchased for the Metropolitan Museum's new Department of Prints by its distinguished first curator, William M. Ivins, Jr.
Technique/Process	etchings (prints)
Materials/Medium	Relief etching printed in orange-brown ink and hand-colored with watercolor and gold
Dimensions	sheet: 6 3/16 x 5 9/16 in. (15.7 x 14.1 cm)
Period	Nineteenth century
Culture	British
Century	19th Century
Location.Current Site/City & Country	New York (N.Y.)
Location.Current Repository	Metropolitan Museum of Art
Repository Notes	Rogers Fund, 1917
Subject	Prints, English Prints -- 19th century Romanticism in art Tigers in art Animals in art
Publisher	The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Publisher.Location	New York (N.Y.)
Credit Line	Image [copyright] The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Reference Number	Met-2529
Collection Title	Prints (Art and Art History Department images)
Collection Information	Collection administered by Visual Resources manager, Architecture Library (402) 472-1193
Copyright Information	http://contentdm.unl.edu:2000/ah_copyright.html

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