Edward Calvert

The Return Home

1830

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In Tate Britain

Spotlights: Ancients and Moderns: Legacies of William Blake

Free entry
Artist
Edward Calvert 1799–1883
Medium
Wood engraving on paper
Dimensions
Image: 41 × 76 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Presented by S. Calvert 1912
Reference
A00164

Display caption

This work by Edward Calvert, Blake's follower and a member of 'the Ancients', was engraved on wood, like Blake's illustrations to Robert Thornton's 'Virgil', also displayed on this wall. It shows a weary shepherd returning home after the sun has set; his wife waits for him at the door of their cottage. The scene suggest a pastoral life, though the image of a world-weary shepherd on his donkey invites a comparison with Christ entering Jerusalem. Calvert later painted this same image in tempera and, in doing so, seems to enter even more into the spirit of Blake's biblical art.

Gallery label, August 2004

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