The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun

The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun from around 1805 is part of Blake's series illustrating the Book of Revelation, among the most powerful visionary images in Western art. Blake's apocalyptic watercolors transform biblical text into images of terrifying sublimity that no other artist of the period could approach. Blake created these works using his distinctive tempera or watercolor technique combined with his personal mythological vision that placed him outside the mainstream of British art while anticipating later Symbolist and Romantic visionaries. The image depicts the moment from Revelation 12 when the great red dragon confronts the woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars upon her head — a cosmic confrontation between evil and the divine feminine that Blake rendered with an intensity that transforms biblical allegory into personal vision. The Rosenwald Collection, now largely at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, preserves these works as among the greatest achievements of British Romantic art.

Blake's distinctive technique combines precise linear drawing with transparent watercolor washes, the muscular dragon figure rendered with anatomical intensity against the cosmic backdrop.