Wash Drawing for Original Stories from Real Life

What it is

This is a grey wash drawing on paper by William Blake, dated 1791, made to illustrate Mary Wollstonecraft's children's book Original Stories from Real Life. It shows a tall woman in a bonnet and long dress standing with her arms outstretched between two smaller girls, in front of a dark doorway with ivy at the left.

Why it matters

Wollstonecraft wrote the book for young readers, and Blake's pictures were made for its text. The drawing is original artwork, so it shows how one artist of the 1790s visualised a scene from her stories. It helps students see the book as a collaboration between a writer and an illustrator.

Look closer

• What do the outstretched arms and the three figures suggest about the relationships in the scene?
• Why might the artist have placed the figures in front of a dark doorway?
• What does this picture leave out that the written story would have to explain?