Naomi entreating Ruth and Orpah to return to the land of Moab

Naomi entreating Ruth and Orpah to return to the land of Moab (1795) is a characteristic work from William Blake's visionary output—the product of a poet-painter who worked entirely outside institutional art-world conventions. Blake's tempera paintings and watercolors gave visual form to his personal mythological system, combining Michelangelesque anatomy with a flame-like linear energy that no academic training had produced and no contemporary school could categorize. Working in near-poverty in London, largely unrecognized in his lifetime, Blake produced a body of work that proved enormously influential on British Romantic poetry and art, particularly on the Pre-Raphaelites and later.

Oil on canvas, the work demonstrates William Blake's skilled technique and careful observation. The composition is carefully structured to balance visual elements, while the handling of light and color creates atmospheric coherence across the picture surface.