CALVERT, Edward

British (1799 – 1883)

The Sheep of his Pasture, 1828

Lister 9 ix/ix. Engraving on wove paper. Edition of 350 issued in A Memoir for Edward Calvert, Artist, 1893.

1 ⁹⁄₁₆ x  3 inches  |  4 x 7.7 cm

‘This engraving dates from 1828, the year after Blake died. Blake inspired a relatively small number of artists, but there are few works whose subject and composition owe such a direct debt to his work as this print. Its links with the eighth of Blake’s wood engravings for Thornton’s ‘Virgil’ show that The Sheep of his Pasture is almost as an act of homage to Blake. Calvert was well aware of the pastoral ideal in Virgil’s writing. Here Calvert presents a wider vision of what he described as ‘that serene kingdom, teeming with the good and the true and the beautiful.’ [Tate Gallery label, August 2004]