Agony in the Garden (Blake)

The Agony in the Garden is a small painting by William Blake, completed as part of his 1799–1800 series of Bible illustrations commissioned by his patron and friend Thomas Butts.

The work illustrates a passage from the Gospel of Luke which describes Christ's turmoil in the Garden of Gethsemane before his arrest and Crucifixion following Judas's betrayal.

[1] In Blake's painting a brilliantly coloured and majestic angel breaks through the surrounding darkness and descends from a cloud to aid and physically support Jesus in his hour of agony.

[2] Both the angel and cloud are composed by a dominant impasted white, and lined with brilliant varieties of red, blue, yellow and green pigments.

The foreground is built from a chalk ground above the priming, which gives added texture, and is especially evident around the areas of the trees and scrubs.

[7] The work is further unique in that he employed cherry gum in his mixture, utilising a blend more commonly associated with earlier, medieval illuminated manuscripts, but which delivers a smoother and more durable effect.

[8] In employing tinned iron Blake was likely experimenting with methods of etching or painting on metal, perhaps following the examples of Lucas van Leyden and Albrecht Dürer's work on copperplate.

[12] Blake sealed his metal support with red paint bound with a gum mixture and animal glue, which was at the time thought to be a corrosion inhibitor.