The Witch of Endor Raising the Spirit of Samuel

William Blake

Pen and watercolor

New York Public Library

This pen and watercolor work by William Blake depicts the Old Testament episode from 1 Samuel 28, in which the Witch of Endor summons the ghost of the prophet Samuel at the behest of King Saul, who prostrates himself before the apparition. Blake, a visionary English poet, painter, and printmaker (1757–1827), brings his characteristic intensity to the supernatural encounter, rendering the figures with dramatic urgency and ethereal light typical of his early biblical watercolors. The composition demonstrates Blake's longstanding engagement with Scripture as a source of visionary imagery, a theme that would define much of his artistic career. The work belongs to a broader group of biblical subjects Blake explored in various media across several decades, including a later and more celebrated watercolor version of the same scene produced around 1800 for his patron Thomas Butts.